


Alloy

by Alektos



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F, F/M, Gen, I don't know, M/M, Rating May Change, a retelling of the MCU starring female Tony Stark, cross-posted on fnet, if i'm dilligent this will span across all the mcu movies till civil war or thor 3, in which i make a mess out of more plot lines than you can imagine, no main pairing - Freeform, will add more characters as they appear - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-02-07 16:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12845049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alektos/pseuds/Alektos
Summary: Follow the story of Antonia Stark as she stumbles, falls, and makes a mess out of life. She doesn't know how to live any other way.





	1. Yinsen

**AN:** I started posting this on fnet and then later on i made an account on this site so now I'm posting it here too.

* * *

Toni Stark woke up with fire in her lungs. Her eyes flew open, and with gasping breaths, she scrambled to  _stop it, get it out, make it go away—_

She grabbed hold of something thin and plastic, and yanked––cried out as a rubbery tube slid out her nasal cavity— _nasogastric intubation_ ,  _why the fuck do I remember that_ now?—and then she breathed more easily, even though there was still a fire in her chest.

Humvees, sand, Rhodey—fuck, she didn't know what happened. She looked up, and she didn't know where she  _was_. Fuck, fuck,  _fuck._

Calm down. Get up. Breathe, damn it.

Toni managed to breathe a little more. Only a little, though. Her rib cage was covered in gauze?

_Her name, on a missile meant for her._

Right. Toni remembered that part. She pushed past it, to the present, and her eyes found a ceiling, a dimly-lit, rocky surface. Then—a man, with smudged glasses and sad, sad eyes.

And she knew something was wrong. The ache in her chest was  _wrong_. "What did you do?" she whispered, her throat still raw, because he was  _guilty_ , she could see it in his gaze.

The old man frowned as he drew closer. Toni didn't trust him enough to tear her eyes from him, but she moved her hands down, trying to feel out the injury on her chest.

Wires, clamps, the edge of steel—none of that belonged on her,  _in_ her, and Toni was so horrified that she looked away from the stranger to stare down at her body. Her chest  _burned_  and screamed and throbbed in time with her unsteady heart.

"What did—what did you do to me?" Toni rasped. "Am I dead?"

No. It looked like something worse than death. She tore at the gauze, to see the magnet in full. The cables that attached it, and her, to a car battery.

The man's hands came down on her wrists, stilling her. She caught his eyes again. "Perhaps you should be, Antonia Stark." He answered her softly, with a wry smile, "But you are not, for now."

* * *

They met at a technical conference in Berlin, apparently. Dr. Ho Yinsen. She remembers making a joking about his name and not much else. Yinsen gives her another placid smile when she stutters through an apology, and Toni feels irrationally angry with him. Is it so bad for her to want to make up with the  _one_  person she can, before those fucking terrorists kill her?

"Oh, come on, Antonia," Yinsen rolls his eyes. "You think whatever you say to me  _now_  will make a difference? You're smarter than that." He's almost admonishing.

Toni eats a spoonful of canned beans spitefully. "I'm trying my best here."

"Are you?" Yinsen chuckles darkly. "The best you've done, Toni Stark, is what landed both of us here in the first place."

She blinks at the wisp of a man before her, bewildered. No, angry.  _Furious._  "What the  _fuck_  is that supposed to mean?" Toni demands, rising to her feet just as the doors screech open.

Yinsen stands beside her, pushing her back from the men entering the cave. He hisses at her to  _do as I do_ , and Toni steps back, because the men are holding  _her guns_.

A missile with her name on it.

Toni feels like screaming. Yinsen translates for the ring leader. "He says 'Welcome, Toni Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.' He is honored."

Yinsen shows her a picture of another missile, the Jericho.

Like an idiot, she refuses to make it.

* * *

Toni had never felt this horrible before. Never. She'd stopped hacking up water a while ago, but the  _hands_ , she could still feel their hands grabbing her, pressing her head beneath the surface—

She shivered, holding her battery to her chest with one hand. She had a pencil in her other hand, posed to write out a list of supplies. They already had so many of her weapons, and they still wanted the fucking Jericho. Why not just steal that too? How  _did_  they get her shipment, anyway?

It didn't matter right now.

"I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they'll never find you in these mountains."

 _Fuck off_ , Toni wanted to snarl, but she didn't have the energy.

"You asked me earlier, when I said your best work is what brought us here. Well, that is your legacy, Stark." Yinsen crouched next to her. "Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers."

Toni didn't let herself flinch. She wrote down a list.

Yinsen read it, and laughed. "Clever. Is this how you will go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Toni Stark?"

"It's something."

He tossed the list into the fire. "Even  _they_  aren't that foolish, Stark. You can do better."

Better?  _Better?_  "And why should I do anything at all? They're going to kill me, kill you, either way!" That's why her first list was full of organophosphates and incendiaries. "I'll be dead in a week anyway."

Yinsen shrugged. Toni hated how little she understood him.

"Well, then this is a very important week for you, isn't it?"

* * *

They wouldn't believe her if she asked for anything containing organophosphates. She also ruled out many other chemicals and incendiaries for being too conspicuous. Not to mention, she'd prefer to get out of this fucking cave  _alive_.

That left her with a lot of metal parts and software. And propulsion. Huh.

When she was eight, Toni dreamed about being a super soldier. She would never be like Captain Rogers, so instead she designed a robot, and then a super suit, that could get the job done. Sheet metal, software, and propulsion.

All she needed was a power source.

* * *

"If you included me in the planning process, this would go a lot faster."

Toni hums as she pulls apart an unarmed missile. She reaches for the precision tools, and detaches 0.15 grams of palladium from its core.

They won't let her make nerve gas, but it looks like she'll be poisoning herself anyway.

"We need at least 1.6 grams of this, so why don't you break down the other eleven?" Toni suggests with a smirk.

* * *

"Careful," Toni can't help but murmur, watching Yinsen. "We only get one shot at this."

Yinsen smirks. "Relax. I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?"

He turns his head to glance at her, and Toni hisses out another warning. He chuckles, but the palladium doesn't spill.

"This'll all be for nothing if you give me a heart attack, Doctor."

Yinsen, the bastard, only scoffs at her joke.

* * *

The miniaturized arc reactor emits an icy blue light, and Toni feels the smallest thought of hope rise in her. "Three gigajoules per second," she says quietly, answering Yinsen before he speaks.

"That could run your heart for fifty lifetimes."

For the first time, Yinsen sounds impressed with her. It stirs a long-forgotten sense of pride in Toni that she can't quite place.

"Yeah," she agrees. "Or something big for fifteen minutes."

* * *

A month later, and Toni was lying in a heap in the desert, encased in scrap metal. Burning, gasping, screaming in her head because her lungs couldn't handle doing it out loud. Her chest was on fire. Everything ached. Yinsen was  _dead_.

She had figured out why it pleased her so much to impress Yinsen. She could see him so clearly, her face reflected in his scratched-up glasses as he demanded, "Is this you legacy, Stark?"

_This is our legacy, Natasha_

Toni hissed out her anger in between clenched and bloodied teeth. Howard stood over her, kicking aside projects scattered on marble floors. Yinsen laid still in the sand.

_This isn't what Starks do, Natasha. Get up!_

Her own words, Howard's, and Yinsen's blurred into one scream of necessity. Toni lifted herself out of the sand—burning, scratching, grainy sand—and stood on her own two feet.


	2. Iron Man

_September 2008_

After the helicopters found her, after she cried and passed out clutching Rhodey in a jet, Toni found a phone for herself and arranged for an emergency press conference. Seven years as CEO, and she'd never done that before.

The media went wild. Especially over the cheeseburgers she stashed in her arm sling. She barely registered the hug Obie gave her, but wink at him cheekily when he asked about the burgers.

People clapped as she walked inside, and Toni could only think of Yinsen and pretend they were applauding him.

She wore loose trousers and sat on the floor. Toni was twenty seven, but that didn't mean she knew how to give a  _real_  press conference, so she may as well run it the way she wanted to.

"Can everyone just… sit with me? It's cool, this is going to be casual." She ignored the questions until everyone was seated. God, did it feel good to eat a hamburger. The  _People Magazine_  rep was already furiously taking derisive notes.

Across the room, Virginia Potts smiled charmingly at another reporter, and accepted a business card. Then Pepper caught Toni's gaze, and shot her an annoyed look for being kept out of the loop.

Toni looked away. Obie chuckled nervously as he sat beside her, and gave her a subtle, concerned frown.

Obadiah was, in a way, her oldest friend. They'd been butting heads ever since Toni took over the company, but he was family, and he knew what the company meant to her. What her legacy meant to her.

"I never said goodbye to him," Toni said quietly, not knowing where else to start—not knowing if she was even talking about Howard or—"

She cleared her throat. Yinsen said his goodbyes, even if Toni hadn't been ready for it. "I never got to say goodbye to my dad. There's… questions I would have asked him, I would've asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts."

To Toni, Howard was a far off dream, an image projected to be larger than life even before he died. They had hardly known each other.

"Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels."

Toni wasn't sure how she sounded as she said that, but Rhodey was staring at her.

"I saw brave men and women die at the hands of weapons I built to protect and defend them." She could feel Obie looking at her now. He was angry, but surely he would understand. They all needed to understand. "And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with  _zero_  accountability."

She paused, and the reporters murmured their questions—

"Newmark," Toni nodded at Ben in the front. He was always respectful, even when he asked shitty questions.

"Ms. Stark, what happened over there?"

Humvees. Soldiers. Her name on the missile.

She quickly got her her feet, got herself under control. "I had my eyes opened," Toni said, loudly, so she can't hear her heartbeat. "I came to realize that I had more to offer this world than… just… making things blow up."

The press stirred, scrambled to their feet, leaned in to hear it from Toni Stark herself.

_Fuck, I'm really doing this._

"That is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries—" Toni doesn't budge when Obie wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Her arm ached, and she reveled in it. "—until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be. What direction it should take—"

Obie was trying to salvage things, and Toni did not care. She kept talking as she was excused from the podium.

"One that  _I_  am comfortable with, a direction that is consistent with the highest good for this country as well!"

She needed to stop this from becoming her legacy. She was good at making weapons, but she could do so much better. This was the first step towards making things  _right_.

Obie didn't understand, but he would. They didn't need to build weapons to keep the company alive.

* * *

It was weeks later, as Toni was lying paralyzed on her couch, that she realized she had never  _stopped_  making weapons. The Mark III was just a floor below, repaired after she'd flown into a warzone with it. And right in front of her eyes, the most powerful weapon she'd ever created was being slowly dragged out of her chest, by Obadiah Stane.

Obie, who had been by her side ever since she started working for Stark Industries––ever since her parents had died. Who helped her learn about the business, and eventually dominate the business world.

 _Stane_ , who  _hated_  her, who thought she wasn't worthy of her position at SI, who only encouraged her so far for that  _quirky brain of hers_  and all that she created.

It was him, it was all him. Her oldest friend. Betrayal wasn't new to her, but this was different. Business was ruthless—hell,  _Obie_  taught her that—but to kill her? To  _kill her, because she was no longer useful?_

It felt like more than that to Toni. Kill her, and you kill what she stood for. Kill her, and you kill her genius. Kill her, and  _kill her chances of making things right._

The reactor left her chest with a metallic click, a ringing in the air that added to the paralytic frequency driving into her eardrums. She was pretty sure he said goodbye, but it didn't matter. Whatever Toni had with Obie, whatever friendship she thought she had, it was dead already. It was never real to begin with.

It was naïve of her to think she could have friends in this business. It was naïve of her to think she could right her wrongs.

_Is this your legacy?_

Her blood was boiling. " _Fuck, no."_

* * *

"...It's been awhile since I've been in front of you," Toni admitted, addressing the reporters at large. She brought her her hand, ready to scratch at her bruised cheek, but remembered the makeup. "Guess I'll stick to the cards this time," she held up the cards in her hands, but couldn't really fake a smile while the reporters murmured with polite humor.

She tried to find Pepper or Rhodey in the back, but ended up making eye contact with Phil Coulson instead. Toni didn't know much about him, or his employers. SHIELD had always been in contact with SI, but their contracts were never that high-profile that Toni needed to handle the work personally.

This whole 'Iron Man' thing would change that, though.

Toni cleared her throat. "There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway, and the rooftop of—"

"I'm sorry Ms. Stark," Christine Everhart interrupted. Fuck, did she hate that woman. A total tease. Toni would never speak with Vanity Fair again. "But do you  _honestly_  expect us to believe that that was a  _bodyguard_  in a suit, that conveniently appeared, despite…" blah blah, snooty tone, self-assured posturing, obvious question that  _would've_  been answered by now if Toni had been allowed to just  _talk_.

Would it shut her up faster, if Toni threw away her talking points and told them all it was  _her_  in the suit?

Phil Coulson caught her eye again. He was… spectacularly blank-faced, and yet, Toni felt the teensiest bit threatened. Like he knew her soul, and would taze her if she didn't stick to the damn cards.

She could still tear up the cards and say whatever she wanted. She could. She _should._

Obie had been her oldest friend. And he tried to kill her over the little reactor in her chest.

_Maybe…._

"I know that it's confusing, Chrissy, but there's not much to say."

_Maybe it's for the best if…._

She took a deep breath. She knew the drill. "—Ever since my return, I've been jumpy. The man responsible for last night's events—as the media calls him, ' _Iron Man_ '—is someone that I trust implicitly, and that will protect me and my own. And in return, he trusts me not to reveal his identity to the public."

_Maybe it's for the best that they don't know it's me._


	3. Barton

_March 2009_

Toni breezed past the office desk in her Malibu home, vaguely acknowledging its presence. Pepper was the only one to ever use the office. But now Toni realized that it  _hadn't_  been Pepper sitting at the desk, and she slowly backtracked until the desk was in her line of sight again.

A man sat at the desk, organizing papers and digital files on the computer. He was dressed impeccably, like Pepper always was and Toni never was, and seemed wholly focused on his work (also like Pepper, not like Toni).

Toni cleared her throat, and was answered with alert grey-blue eyes and an apt look of polite surprise. Cute.  _I swear I've seen that face before._  Were they all beginning to blur into one?

"Ms. Stark," he stood, setting aside his work to address her. "Ms. Potts said I'd be meeting you soon." He held out a hand, and Toni didn't shake it.

Her eyes narrowed. No, for sure, she knew him from something. "Name?"

The man knew how to keep up, that was for sure. He retracted his hand smoothly, and said, "Clyde Bates. I'm your new PA."

_Oh._  Right. Toni nodded. She had liked his resume among a group of twenty applications—the twenty that Pepper had seen fit to propose to Toni. She was in need of a new personal assistant, now that (as of two days ago) Pepper was acting CEO and Toni was head of R&D.

"Pepper works fast. I only picked you a day ago," Toni commented. She beckoned him forward, resisting the urge to snap her fingers like she did to get DUM-E's attention. She'd done that to Pepper once, and the response had been  _legendary_. She missed Pepper's shouting voice already.

A tendril of heat curled through Toni's chest, painfully reminding her why she'd made Pepper her successor.

Of course, Toni would name Pepper her successor. With Stane gone, there was no one else she trusted more than Virginia Potts. Of course, resigning only six months after shutting down all weapons manufacturing plants had baffled everyone…

"You're twenty-seven, Toni, why would you resign?" Pepper had demanded, and Toni rambled for twenty minutes about being an inventor, how she didn't want the board to hold her back, how Pepper knew the ins and outs of the company better than Toni did anyway.

It didn't have to be all true. As long as the company survived, and Pepper supported the clean energy initiative, Toni was content. It was okay.

Clyde was talking to her, telling her the agenda for the next few days, but off to the left Toni imagined a bloody figure in glasses, asking about her legacy again as her heart burned away.

Toni had plans. She had a strong idea of where she wanted her company to go, and she had intended to see it through. She would've stayed CEO, she would've done it all by herself, but she couldn't, and that was okay. Her plan was in place, and Pepper was already a better CEO than her. Her legacy was safe with Pepper. That was all that mattered anymore.

The burning sensation intensified, spread, bit into her lungs.  _I'm going to die_.

_Shut up, Toni._

"And after the race is the meeting with Mr. Pancietto, so—"

"—Well, I'll meet up with you on the private plane to Monaco in two hours, then," Toni cut him off, "You can call Happy, he'll give you a lift."

With that, Toni escaped to her basement lab to replace her reactor.

Again.

The palladium core was leaking into her body. For the past few months, Toni had been looking for a solution, but it was useless. The longer it took to find a cure, the worse her chances of survival were. She spent so much time looking for something that didn't exist, pushing her energy plans further back and back….

But at least she had Pepper. Pepper could make sure the projects were funded and researched thoroughly like they should be—and Toni could…fuck, what  _could_  she do? She'd skirted death once by building this reactor, she couldn't do it again.

Then there was Yinsen again, always talking in the back of her mind. She would be dead any day now, yes, but that made every day more important than the last.

Even with all her plans for Pepper and the company, Toni hadn't done enough. Not yet. She didn't want to die yet.

Toni eyed the melted palladium core in her palms. About thirty percent of the core's mass was lost to the reactor's heat, and of that, ten percent leaked into her bloodstream with each core. And it was  _frightening_ , to see the evidence right there in her hands. Evidence that her invention wasn't perfect. Proof of her mortality.

She squeezed the metal chip tightly, and didn't let herself cry. There was no point.

* * *

They arrived in Monaco a day early. The last time Toni had been early for something was when she was  _born_. And even then, she'd given her mother a hard time during birth (according to her old butler, at least).

Not only was Toni early, but Clyde had planned everything out already. So she had  _nothing_  to do but kill time. Which would be fine—in fact, Toni was happy to go off and explore the city––except that Clyde had orchestrated her driver's disappearance and the valet's inability to get her a damn car. She was on total  _lockdown_ , stuck in her Radisson hotel room.

The only upside was that she was rooming  _with_  Clyde, her tasty PA. The suite had two separate bedrooms, but they didn't need to use them both, right? Or maybe she could convince him to go swimming, so she could get a better look at his arms. She just  _knew_  they'd be delicious.

She wasn't sure why she was thinking about Clyde so much. There was no way in hell she'd be going in the pool, but…. Well, it was nice to not think about death for a little bit.

Except now she was thinking about death again.

Toni flopped onto the cushioned lounge chair on the patio, and huffed in frustration. She hadn't brought anything to do besides work on her equations for the reactor research, and that was just one depressing dead end after another.

"Bates, are you  _sure_  you don't want to go out? It's a beautiful evening."

He didn't look up from the Starkpad he was working from. "You have an early start tomorrow."

She scowled, and prepared to explain that she could still make it to brunch if she went out bar hopping, but then a sharp pain stifled her response. Toni snapped her jaw shut, and from the corner of her eye she saw Clyde look up.

Rubbing at her neck calmly, Toni sighed as the pain disappeared as quickly as it came. She supposed it would be harder to hide the effects of palladium poisoning if she poisoned her blood further.

_I'm going to die_ , she thought to herself morosely.  _No need to expedite the process_.

No alcohol for Toni.

She could stop drinking, right? It wasn't that hard. Yes. For the rest of Toni Stark's brief life, however insignificant a blip it was in time, she would not drink. Easy.

Toni sighed, and settled her gaze on the city of Monte Carlo. But now she really wanted a drink, because she was dwelling on the fact that her life was some trivial little grain of sand in the grand scheme of the universe. This was depressing.

"I spy something green," Toni spoke abruptly. She craned her neck to look back at Clyde for his reaction.

He simply looked at her, scanned the view from the patio, and said, "The  _Vert de Mer._ " It wasn't even a question.

Toni whipped her head back to the boat she'd been staring at in the bay. "Nope, try again," she lied.

Clyde turned to stare at Toni. "It was the boat," he said confidently.

"Lucky guess," Toni said, disgruntled. She let her eyes flicker around the city again. "I spy something small and red."

Again, Clyde obliged without a hint of protest. "Billboard blonde's ring," he replied in a heartbeat.

Toni's eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. "I spy a white sail," she countered. He couldn't be that good, all the sails were white––

"The yacht,  _Fantôme Sur L'eau_."

She pretended to look out over the porch again for a while, before she resolutely looked back at Clyde. "I spy something gray and blue," she said firmly.

He paused, tilting his head. He didn't even bother looking out the window. "I'm flattered," he grinned, and pointed to his eye.

Okay, she'd already known there was something serious funky about Bates, but seriously? She didn't realize that  _Master of I-Spy_  was a thing. And it wasn't just that he was looking very far––it was how he was watching  _her_ eyes and following her train of thought at the same time.

"Bates, what's your deal?" She couldn't take it anymore.

"What do you mean?" He asked coolly.

"I mean you're  _definitely_  in the wrong business. How's your eyesight? You've got the eyesight of a––I don't know, a bird of prey. Or a Mantis shrimp."

"20/20," he answered smoothly, raising an eyebrow.

"So's mine, but I can't guess what you're thinking for a game of I-Spy," Toni frowned.

Clyde leaned back, staring at Toni with unreadable eyes. "I like playing I-Spy," he said. It didn't sound like a lie, but Toni knew it had to be one.

There was absolutely no indication that Clyde had done anything suspicious at all. Obviously, this meant that he was a liar and a fake and probably an assassin that would eventually kill her. Toni predicted it would be by sniper rifle.

"How's your aim?" She asked, interestedly. "Come on, Bates, work with me."

Clyde hesitated, before looking at Toni plainly and saying, "I never miss."

She considered this carefully. "What's the longest shot you've ever made?"

"About 2000 meters," Clyde said frankly. Toni's eyes narrowed. She had a feeling that was an understatement, but she let it slide. She could snoop later.

For now, she just wanted to stop thinking about palladium substitutes.

"What's the longest shot you've ever made… with a marshmallow?"

Clyde had opened his mouth to answer, but stopped himself, and chuckled. "Never tried it."

"Huh," Toni said haughtily. "Technically, I'm the better shot then, in this case."

She stared at him, challengingly. Clyde stared right back.

"Are you challenging me to a  _marshmallow shooting contest?_ " He asked, and there was a definite eagerness in his tone that Toni had never heard before.

"Yes."

"Oh, you're  _on_."

* * *

Monaco is a disaster, but at least Toni doesn't regret the time she spent goofing off with her PA.

* * *

"How much can you bench?" Stark inquired in an idle voice.

Clint blinked, knowing that this was one of those question he should answer with caution. In fact, when dealing with Stark, everything was supposed to done with caution, because every report with Antonia Stark's name on it included the word  _'volatile_ '.

Not that he really cared.

It wasn't often that his op included tossing marshmallows at strangers while a smart, beautiful woman flirted with him all day. He never got paired up with Nat anymore, and Stark… despite all her eccentricities, she was a lot like Romanoff. (He would never tell either woman this, of course).

He looked down, realizing that he'd rolled up his sleeves subconsciously to muddle through some paperwork. Stark wasn't very subtle about her ogling. Oh well. He was pretty sure he was picked for this mission for his looks anyway.

"Dunno, why?" he deflected offhandedly.

She frowned, shooting Clint a doubtful look, before shaking her head and standing. She had been lounging on her bed, already dressed for her birthday, while Clint answered calls and arrange Stark's meetings.

Stark had been quiet since they'd come back from Monaco, but that was expected after Ivan Vanko showed up to mutilate anything with her name on it. It was sheer luck that she'd rolled out of the car before Vanko sliced it in two with the help of his very own arc reactor, and even luckier that Stark had brought a new suit. And yeah, Clint––or rather, Clyde Bates––got to be one of the few people that knew about Toni Stark's alter-ego. He'd had to sign a lot of forms that Pepper Potts produced out of nowhere, and act surprised when Ms. Potts sat him down and told him, but it was done.

A sort of camaraderie had emerged between him and Stark. Clint could honestly say that he liked the woman, for all her narcissism and showboating. Maybe it was because she could talk about Iron Man with him, or maybe it was because Stark seemed to always pick out the Clint Barton parts of his made-up identity. She was childish at times, but Clint was no better. It was why he'd humored her when she started asking about his eyesight.

He almost felt guilty for lying to her about himself.

Coulson was still complaining about how much his tech team had to work to make a believable false identity that could fool SI's systems––but  _damn_ , were they good. Stark still didn't know he was with SHIELD.

_Or maybe,_  Clint thought, watching Stark busy herself with circuit boards and shaky fingers,  _Stark's too preoccupied to watch her six_.

For someone who was paranoid enough to make a suit of armor and an alter-ego, Stark was incredibly oblivious to the world around her. Sure, they were all surprised by Vanko, but wasn't Stark supposed to be a genius? She still hadn't bothered to take a closer look at SHIELD, but Clint knew that she'd be able to hack them in minutes if she tried.

"Do you think they're right?" Stark asked suddenly.

Clint blinked, trying to remember if she'd been talking about anyone specific.

But she shook her head, and elaborated. "Stern. Senator Stern, and the rest of those old assclowns. You must've watched the hearing."

The congressional hearing about the Iron Man technology.

Clint raised his eyebrows. Stark had talked circles around the senators trying to get her to give her tech to the military. "Right about  _what_? You didn't let them get a word in."

"Yeah," Stark agreed unabashedly, "But we all know what they were getting at. They don't think Iron Man is enough to keep us safe.  _One_  Iron Man, that is. All I proved was that I was the only one with this tech, so we didn't need to worry about other people that could match the suit."

"And… now there's Vanko," Clint said, and she looked away. "Who has his own arc reactor––"

"He's in jail," Stark cut him off quickly, "He's in jail, and his reactor was just a shitty copy of mine, despite all the bitching Hammer's been doing since then."

Despite her dismissal, Stark was rubbing at her collarbone, where bluish veins were creeping up from her reactor. It was hard to see, but Clint wasn't called Hawkeye for nothing. "If you say so," he said nebulously.

He stood, and scooped up her foundation and concealer from her dresser. Stark looked surprised for a moment, before she moved to an armchair and let him cover up the sickly veins on her neck and the bruising over her cheek. Clint had helped Nat do it a hundred times, so it wasn't difficult.

What  _was_  difficult, however, was doing it while Toni Stark made eyes at him and bit her lip; he was leaning over her already, and she kept him in place by tugging on his tie.

"I  _do_  say so," she insisted, her voice suddenly breathy and low. "No one's made a better arc reactor than me, so I have nothing to worry about."

Clint only held her eyes for a moment, before he dropped his gaze back to her neck, brushing a thumb over her veins lightly. "If there's nothing to worry about, why do you look so sad, Ms. Stark?"

Her hold on his tie loosened. She looked away, at his shoulder rather than his face. "If you're as smart as I think you are, you already know."

Clint stilled, watching her expression closely. He'd had his suspicions, as did Coulson and Fury, but Toni Stark played these sort of issues close to the chest. "You're not just sick. You're dying."

She was silent.

"Do you know how long you have?"

Brown eyes settled on blue. "If this was your last birthday party, what would you do?"

Stark stared at him. Her bruises were neatly concealed and her makeup made her look exquisite, and yet Clint thought she looked more vulnerable and open than ever. Toni was a piece of work… but if you asked Clint, she didn't deserve any of this.

He crouched down, lowering himself to get closer to her eye-level. It was uncomfortable in a suit, but Clint was uncomfortable in a suit anyway. "I would… do whatever I wanted to do," he admitted, knowing it was something Nat would say, but… "With whoever I wanted to do it with."

It was something Nat would say, not something Nat would  _do_. But then again, he wasn't Nat. When Toni lunged forward, and he let her kiss him, Clint couldn't help but think he really wasn't right for this op.

He also really didn't care.

* * *

"What's your name?" Toni gasped out, some time later. "Your actual name?"

"Clint," he breathed, kissing her shoulder, "My name is Clint Barton."

He  _really_  wasn't right for this op.

* * *

Clint watched as Toni trashed her own house, fighting her best friend for no reason. He sent a message to Fury when Rhodes flew off with the War Machine armor. But the next morning, Toni got up, dusted herself off, and dragged Clint into her basement lab.

She flipped through digital files stored on her computer, while Clint was instructed to take down walls. "You know, I don't think remodeling was in the job description," Clint called out to Toni, grunting as he arranged some huge pipes through the hole he'd just made.

"Shush, Clint. You don't get a say in this, you've been lying about your identity this whole time." Toni said it like he needed to make up for his deception, but she still hadn't asked him  _who_  he was, or who he worked for. They were skirting the issue for now, and Clint was okay with that. He hadn't told Coulson that detail yet anyway…

Toni gave up on the files for the moment, and came over to check his progress. Or check him out. A little of both, really. "Is it level?"

With a practiced hand, Clint placed the leveler on the constructed portion of the particle collider, and frowned. "No, this part's too low."

Toni nodded. "Move on to the next part—if it's too tight the I won't be able to level it out later."

Clint obliged, and lifted another portion of the machine into place, maneuvering it around the hole in the wall that Toni had made to make room for the collider. As he did so, Toni went back to her desk.

Clint had to wonder what she was doing. As far as he knew, Toni hadn't yet come up with a replacement for palladium, but she had asked him to help with her research anyway.

"Where are they?" she muttered to herself, scowling at her holographic screens. "J, what happened to Howard's stuff?" She flipped through more files, and Clint noticed now that they were all empty or redacted.

_~There seems to be a problem retrieving Howard Stark's research, Miss. I'm afraid they do not exist on my servers.~_

"But you're connected to all the SI servers!" Toni protested. She pointed to Clint haphazardly. "Don't stop what you're doing, sweetheart, I'll still need that collider. Eventually."

Clint rolled his eyes, but continued to assemble the cylindrical structure. He got a message from Coulson while he worked, but it was only a few minutes' notice.

_~Miss, it seems that you have an unauthorized visitor.~_

"Don't let 'em in."

_~My apologies, but I am being ovERridDEn—~_

"JARVIS?" Toni asked in alarm. She checked her monitor, and gave it a quizzical look. Clint came over. Lo and behold, Fury was making his way to the basement with a group of men carrying storage boxes.

Looked like Clint's 'espionage' mission was over. He quickly unlocked the door to the basement just as Fury appeared at the bottom of the staircase.

"Clint?" Toni looked between him and Fury, bewildered.

"Sir," Clint muttered, standing aside as Fury gave him a swift nod and passed him.

Clint watched, expressionlessly, as Toni realized what was happening. She noticed the insignia on the black boxes, and scowled at Fury and Coulson.

"You're fired, Clint," Toni said belatedly, though there was no real fight left in her voice.

" _'Clint'?_ " Agent Coulson repeated, suddenly alert. His eyes narrowed.

_Shit_. Clint shrugged. "Ms. Stark uncovered my secret identity." Toni glanced at him quizzically, but said nothing.

"I see," Coulson deadpanned. "And when were you planning on informing your handler of this?"

"...Right now?"

"Okay, enough about Clint's shitty acting," Toni exclaimed, trying to block the agents bringing in boxes of stuff. "What's going on here? Who's the pirate?" She stared, and then shook her head. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? I'm a bit hung over. I'm not sure if you're real or…"

Fury smiled coldly. "Oh, Ms. Stark, I am  _very_  real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."

Coulson handed Clint a syringe as Toni spoke, and Fury gave him a short nod. Clint acknowledged the direction wordlessly, clamping down on the objection on his tongue. He didn't want to blindside her with this, but that seemed to be the Director's style.

"I'm here to return Howard's research. Did you know that your father was one of the founding members of SHIELD, Stark?" Fury asked.

Toni blinked. "That would explain why they've always been a pain in my ass."

Fury scoffed. "What do you remember about your father, Toni?"

She took a step back, retreating towards her lab bench with a frown.

Clint stepped up to Toni, and touched her arm. She turned, looking confused but not alarmed. "Clint, what's–– _what the hell is that?"_ She twisted away from the needle instinctively.

"Toni," he said quietly, soothingly, "Do you trust me?"

She stiffened. "Until last night I didn't even know your  _name_ ," she pointed out, tugging her arm away.

"But do you  _trust_  me?" he asked patiently, holding her firmly. "Because this is going to counteract the palladium poisoning." Toni paused. "It's a lithium dioxide solution. SHIELD's been working on it for a while now. It's not a permanent fix, but it'll give us more time."

She didn't say anything, but stared at the syringe.

Clint could've injected her at any time. But he waited. "Toni, can I?" he asked again. "Please."

"...Fuck. Okay. Hit me up, Secret-Agent-Man. Apparently I still have work to do."

* * *

The wrench in her hands clattered to the floor, but Toni didn't care. Her eyes were glued to the center of her particle collider, where she had just synthesized a new element.

She  _synthesized a new element_.

"Can't believe he was right," she muttered to herself, ducking under the collider's metal tube to get a closer look. "Dead for twelve years, and Howard's still taking me to school…"

Granted, it was Fury's help that kick-started this little experiment, but she'd already come up with the hypothesis when the Director of SHIELD showed up with boxes of Howard's incomplete research.

Damn Clint Barton and his super secret spy ring.

Toni knew that 'Clyde' wasn't real, that there was something up with his muscle-y arms and occasional outbursts of dry humor––not to mention that 'Clyde' wasn't a very normal name to begin with––but even after he'd admitted that he'd faked his identity, she hadn't expected him to be a freakin' SHIELD agent.

And yet, she kind of liked Clint. Maybe she was biased because, well, he was also pretty damn hot, but Clint was a terrible spy. He was too honest. And he managed to put up with her for  _months_ , of course she wanted to keep him around.

She still hadn't let Clint in the lab since meeting Fury, which was a month ago. But now that her particle collider had created starkium, she  _had_  to share.

"J, get the PA down here!" she called out, already placing the new element into a reactor and switching out the one in her chest. The effects weren't instantaneous, but Toni was already feeling much, much better.

_~Miss, may I remind you that he is not on your payroll?~_

"He's supposed to be watching me, right? If he wants to know what I'm up to, he needs to get down here," Toni explained, wondering if Clint could hear her from wherever he was.

"You needed me?"

Toni whirled around, and found Clint stepping through the glass sliding door to her basement lab, casually strolling in like he hadn't just appeared out of nowhere in two seconds flat.

"Yeah—were you in the military?" she asked impulsively, striding over to her revamped suit, fitted to be powered by the new energy source she'd just synthesized.

"For a little while, yeah. Best marksman in the unit."

"Ha! Knew it…" Toni offered no explanation of her exclamation to Clint, so he let it drop.

He came closer, looking over the suit curiously. "I've been meaning to ask...why lie to the media about Iron Man?" he asked, his eyes still glued to the suit being fitted around Toni.

Toni checked her watch briefly, and then allowed for her gauntlet to be fitted over her forearms. She needed to get to the Stark Expo to humiliate Justin Hammer… among other things.

"Uh—well, Coulson suggested it, and it gave me an excuse not to answer questions—I hate stupid questions." She also hated assholes that tried to steal her tech, and assholes that tried to  _kill her_ , so those were other, more relevant reasons for not revealing herself…

Clint gave her a disbelieving look, but said nothing of it. "I'm supposed to be evaluating you," he admitted nonchalantly.

Toni raised an eyebrow, the faceplate held just above the rest of her helmet by a robotic arm that would move at her will. "Evaluating me for  _what?_ "

Clint looked around, and shrugged, "It's called the Avengers Initiative. Fury doesn't want you to know about it yet."

Now it was Toni's turn to give Clint a disbelieving look.

"So... why are you telling me?"

Clint shrugged again, leaning against her worktable and examining the suit idly. "I'm a little biased at this point, I know, but I gave you a positive report, Toni." She snorted inelegantly, but Clint went on. "If I were going on your most recent actions, I'd call you volatile, self-obsessed and narcissistic."

"Stop, you're making me blush," Toni deadpanned. Clint ignored her again.

"C'mon, Toni. You and I both know you did all that shit—give Pepper the company, the race in Monaco,  _giving away_  War Machine to Rhodey––you were  _dying_ , it was your last hurrah."

Clint paused, and looked at her. But he doesn't mention anything else.

"I'm going with my gut on this one, Stark. You're healthy again. So shape up and kick some ass."

Toni grinned, exhaling in a soft laugh. She gave him a pensive look, and Clint raised his eyebrow.

"... I was dying, but I don't regret any of it, you know." Toni admitted frankly.

Clint just laughed. "Coulson's gonna be a bitch, but I don't regret it either, Toni."

"Ugh, you're going to  _report_  on me?"

He shrugged helplessly. "No, but I think he might be psychic."

They giggled, and then let the silence build up around them again.

Toni bit her lip and looked at Clint, considering. She was kind of stuck in the suit, so it was up to him. "One more for good luck?"

"Oh, that was  _lame,_ " Clint leaned forward and kissed her anyway.

After a moment, though, Clint made a weird noise, and drew back with an odd expression on his face.

"Why do you taste like… coconut and aluminum?"

"You taste it too?" Toni asked, incredulous. "I thought the starkium was messing with my nerve endings." She paused, wondering if that theory should've worried her more than it did.

Clint raised an eyebrow. "You named it  _starkium?_  I take it back, you're still narcissistic."

"Agreed." She stepped back, and pressed a button to clamp on the faceplate of the suit. "I'll see you later, 007. I've still got work to do."

He rolled his eyes. "So do I, Tinhead. And the name's Hawkeye!"


	4. Coulson

_June 2009_

The Mark IIX was meant for underwater use, but that didn't make her feel any better about being at the bottom of the Hudson rewiring the power grid. Toni didn't even  _like_  water. Cold showers were okay, but ugh, baths were still horrible.

"And… we're good!" Toni spoke through the suit, as she placed a device into the pipeline and sealed it back up. "How're we looking on your end, Pepper?"

_"You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?"_  asked Pepper, as her face popped up in the corner of Toni's monitor. She smirked proudly at her redheaded friend.

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon for self-sustaining, clean energy," she declared in answer. "Light her up, already!" she encouraged Pepper.

_"Well, assuming that the arc reactor takes over and_ actually  _works…"_

"I assume! The others worked like a charm, and so will this. C'mon, I want the CEO to do it!" Toni whined, but was unable to keep the smirk off her face. She could see Pepper roll her eyes. Powering up her thrusters, Toni sighed slightly when she broke the surface of the river, and started her flight to Stark Tower to see her light show.

A grin split Toni's face in two when she witnessed the tower flicker on and proudly display the Stark logo. Pepper's voice crackled through the suit as Toni whizzed towards her newest building.

_"How does it look?"_

In all honesty, Toni was slightly dazzled by her own work of art. It was a shame Clint wasn't there to see it first-hand.

"It's like Christmas… but with more  _me._ "

Toni made it clear that this was a very good addition. "I'm just worried about the structural integrity of my name. I didn't like the looks of those workmen," Toni commented truthfully. She had been forced to break out the Mark VI to help them attach the 'A' in 'STARK' because they were so incompetent.

_"They just wanted to see Iron Man flying around New York, Toni."_  Pepper explained exasperatedly. Toni wasn't convinced, but that was irrelevant.  _"You know, we've got to go wider on the public awareness campaign—you need to do some press."_

"Yeah, but—"

_"I'm in DC tomorrow, working on the zoning for the next three buildings,"_  Pepper cut her off, but Toni made no attempt to argue further. Pepper knew what she was doing—why else would Toni appoint her best friend as CEO of her company? Well, besides the fact that she did it when she was dying, Toni chose Pepper because she was the best candidate for a successor.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on the roof, by the way." Toni touched down, smiling slightly as she remembered her disastrous first landing, just over a year ago. Rhodey never really forgave her for totaling her own Lamborghini. Neither did Toni, but she replaced it with a bright red Audi and they were very happy together.

She entered a private workshop—one that few even knew existed—and automatically her suit was being dismantled and stored. Robotic arms worked around her, but Toni trusted her bots more than she trusted most humans.

_"Miss, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line,"_  JARVIS informed her. Remember those humans that Toni didn't trust? Yeah, you could blame SHIELD for that. Toni frowned at the thought of speaking with Coulson, the middle-aged SHIELD agent that probably knew how to kill her with a paperclip.

"Tell him I'm still out."

Every time Coulson called, things got complicated for Toni. She could handle talking to Clint, but so far all the other SHIELD agents she met were asshats and Toni hated them.

_"I'm afraid he's insisting._ "

Toni scowled a little, and swapped out the breathable, spandex-like shorts she wore under the suit for jeans. She kept the tight-fitting long sleeve on, and threw a loose Pink Floyd shirt over it to mute the reactor's glow.

"Hey Pepper!" she called out, entering the spacious penthouse and ignoring her AI's messages from Coulson.

The ginger in question turned around expectantly, and beamed at Toni, glancing at the Starkpad in her neatly-manicured hands.

"Levels are holding steady, Toni. I think we're good."

Toni snorted. "Of course it's holding steady, it's an arc reactor  _I made_." Pepper didn't even bother to roll her eyes at Toni, but held out the Starkpad for Toni to check their data herself. She nodded, and grinned at Pepper. "This wouldn't have happened without you, Pep."

Toni didn't think it was possible, but Pepper was smiling even wider now, and threw her arms around Toni with a squeal. "Oh, Toni! The company's moving in such a good direction—you're the one that made this possible."

Toni patted Pepper's back like the awkward twenty-eight year old she was. But Pepper was used to that.

"Well. Yeah, I am," Toni admitted. Pepper pulled back, raising one perfect eyebrow at her. She only smirked back. "Your idea—true—but I made all the stuff, did the heavy lifting—"

"So you're saying I didn't do anything?  _I'm_  the one who's building up an image for SI, started the marketing for your clean energy plan, got the zoning for this building to be  _built_ —"

"Ok, ok, I got it. That's about… what, twelve percent? Don't answer that, I'm better with the math," Toni teased, slipped away before Pepper could smack her arm or something. She seized a bottle of apple cider, was disappointed for a moment, and then poured herself a glass in celebration even though apple cider felt like defeat.

Three months sober is sort of a victory though, right?

"You know, it's going to say 'Potts' on the lease for the next building!" Pepper warned, accepting the glass Toni offered.

_"Miss? The telephone."_  JARVIS interrupted, and Toni noticed a sense of urgency to his tone. She didn't say a word, but Coulson's voice came through the intercom.

_"Toni, we need to talk."_

Toni picked up the receiver and monotoned, "You've reached the life-sized holographic decoy of  _Natasha Antonia Stark_. Please leave your name and number at the tone—"

_"Stark, this is urgent."_

"Then leave it urgently! Beeeep—"

The elevator  _dinged_  and Agent Coulson stepped in, ending the call on his phone. "Security breach! I knew something was wrong with the security…" Toni commented, frowning at the agent. "Those damn workmen!"

" _Phil!_  Come in!" Pepper invited him cheerfully, and Toni was dumbfounded until Agent Coulson followed her.

"'Phil'? No, no—your first name is 'Agent'!" Toni protested, trailing after them like a child.

"We're celebrating, would you care to join us?" Pepper asked courteously. Toni knew he probably wouldn't, but she groaned in displeasure all the same. Coulson turned to Toni.

"We need you to look over this as soon as possible."

Coulson held out a simple table with an extensive digital file opened on-screen, but Toni paused. Clint was usually the messenger boy in these situations, because he was the only one that Toni actually kind of liked.

But it was a  _really_  extensive file, and Toni couldn't stop herself from snatching it away from Coulson, merely muttering, "Where's Barton?" as she flipped through the first few pages with a swipe of her callused fingers.

Though she noticed Coulson's silence, Toni brushed it off. Coulson was one of the hard-asses that wouldn't tell her shit if it wasn't crucial to her cooperation, anyway. She'd been complaining about Clint's absence ever since he'd been reassigned.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked inquisitively, before her face fell a little. "Which I know nothing about…"

Toni ignored them, looking at the file instead. She was somewhat surprised at the information, and gave the agent a perplexed look.

Coulson knew that Toni had already turned them down for the Avengers Initiative. Even with Barton's report, which was actually quite sparkling, she had no interest in working with a group of misfits she didn't know. It's why she became a consultant for SHIELD—it was in lieu of joining Fury's boy band (where the only positive would be the attractive men).

But Coulson remained frustratingly expressionless as always.

Toni scrunched up her nose in annoyance. "My official consulting hours are between 8 am and 5 pm every other Thursday for SHIELD operatives, pal, but I guess I could squeeze you in." she joked half-heartedly, absorbed in the file. She sat on the couch without really think about it.

"As you can see, this isn't a consultation, Stark." Coulson replied smoothly. Damn, he was  _porcelain_. But Toni was the bull.

"Why's the group called the 'Avengers' anyway?" she complained, squinting at the information thoughtfully. It was more in-depth than the last file she'd been allowed access to. "I mean, that's kind of a bad vibe—what are they avenging? I can see this is a global crisis. Are they going to wait until the world's blown up so they can avenge it? Why aren't they ' _Protectors'?_  How about ' _Guardians_ '?"

Toni glanced at Coulson and Pepper quickly, but didn't give either of them a chance to respond.

"Wait—this guy, Thor, he's from a different planet? No, a different 'realm'. Does that translate into a universe or a galaxy?

"I've got it. Your boy band can be the  _Guardians of the Galaxy_ , I like the alliteration—"

"Miss Stark," Coulson interrupted her quickly. Her head snapped up, and she acknowledged him with a small 'huh?' before glancing back at the screen, muttering about gamma radiation. "Just… just read the file, and we'll alert you tomorrow if there's any updates… Keep Iron Man ready, if you accept." He gave her a short, meaningful look.

"Iron Man's always ready," Toni muttered, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. She had kept it boyishly short ever since Afghanistan, simply for the practicality.

Toni didn't notice Pepper walk out with Phil, asking about a cellist from Portland. "I'll do my homework. JARVIS, turn on the coffee machine—looks like I'm going to become an expert in thermonuclear physics and gamma radiation tonight."

_~I know you won't listen when I advise you not to strain yourself, so good luck, Miss Stark.~_

She grinned, her eyes not leaving the digital file. "Thanks, JARVIS." The file was extensive, but she appreciated how thorough Dr. Banner and Dr. Selvig's notes were. It was a nice challenge.

Toni set the Starkpad on the counter in front of a large glass wall, and motioned for the screen to display as much information from the Avengers Initiative file as possible. Her eyes were momentarily drawn to the rolling footage of a large green creature, a man in red white and blue, and a pair of dark figures under siege in what appeared to be Budapest.

Naturally, she clicked on Barton's file.

Toni felt her heart rise up into her throat. She mashed it down, and replaced it with fire and brimstone.

_"What the fuck, Coulson?!"_  Toni stormed after the agent and Pepper.

Coulson… actually looked a little regretful. Weird. The guy had a  _killer_  poker face most of the time. "I see you read about Barton."

"Yeah," Toni snarled, crossing her arms to quell her urge to slap the agent. It probably wouldn't end well if she did. "What do you mean, he's ' _currently compromised_ '? I thought he was babysitting astrophysicists?"

By now, Coulson's expression had smoothed out into that mask once more, but his voice still held a noticeable dash of distress. "He and Dr. Selvig were in the vicinity when our bogey came through a portal created by the cube. They were both put under the influence of the bogey's weapon, which, for lack of a better word, brainwashed them."

And then Toni began to reel in her concern. She was a genius, damn it, not an emotional little girl…

"You could've started off with that, Coulson," Toni pointed out in a disgruntled voice, her anger fading into a shell around her. It always did. "I'll get back to you in the morning."

Retreating back to her couch, Toni ran a hand through her brutally short hair. It was long enough for strands to flop into her face, but that was the extent of her hair's ability. Pepper was always trying to convince her to grow it out.

But Toni was actually very happy with her hair length. Not too long, otherwise it would get caught in her helmet when she wore her suit, but long enough for Toni to feel some of her anxiety dissipating when she yanked at her locks by the handful, which she was currently doing.

_~Miss, I'd suggest you discontinue pulling out your own hair, as you requested a reminder during highly stressful events.~_

She really knew how to cover all her bases, didn't she?

Toni obliged, relaxing her fingers and brushing her hair back gently. "Thank you, J," she muttered gratefully, settling herself on the couch again. "JARVIS, where's that coffee? My homework's due tomorrow and I'm pulling an all-nighter."

* * *

The following morning, Toni couldn't stand it any longer. She had to accept SHIELD's conditional membership if she wanted the rest of the intel. "JARVIS! I'm calling Coulson!"

The call was brief, and to the point.

_"You're not supposed to have this number._ " She swore she heard the agent sigh in exasperation. What was this madness? Coulson didn't  _have_  emotions.

"You should've told me that sooner, Agent Phil!" she admonished him, her excitement leaking into her tone.

_"Don't call me that. What's this about?"_

Toni bit her lip, but sounded certain of herself when she answered, "Send me everything. I'll find your boogeyman—"

" _Bogey_."

"—and I'll find Clint and all your other brainwashed people too." Her jaw clenched, and she had to work to relax it. "This guy, Loki… he's the real deal, isn't he?"

"Yes he is. I saw the Destroyer myself, Stark. We need to stop him."

She sighed, shaking the image out of her head. The damage reports for New Mexico were telling. "I've never fought a god before."

"He's not a god, Stark. He's not invincible." Coulson said calmly. "But we need you, Ms. Stark. Are you in, or not?"

Toni made a disgusted noise. "You  _live_  for those dramatic ultimatums, don't you? I'm  _in_ , for fuck's sake."


	5. Romanoff

Toni awoke to the unpleasant and slightly fuzzy image of Agent Phil Coulson, stretched out comfortably on her armchair and yet impossibly straight-backed like he had no concept of the word 'slouch' and was actually living proof that you could go your entire life with a stick up your—

"What do you know about Agent Romanoff?" Coulson asked abruptly, noticing she was awake.

Toni blinked up at him from her pillow pile on the couch. It was a good couch. "Everything on Romanoff was redacted, even the medical file," she said slowly. Toni had considered bypassing SHIELD's firewall to read it, but it hadn't been the most important thing to get done, and she'd fallen asleep after getting through most of Selvig's work.

"She came by earlier and requested your assistance in her current assignment—"

Toni lurched up from her pillows, bewildered. "Wait, Romanoff was  _here_?"

"—we've put together a file for you to look over should you agree to cooperate—"

"But she's Barton's partner. Part-time partner. By the way, why are they both fluent in Hungarian as of 2006?" Toni asked quickly, hoping that Coulson let something slip.

"That's classified."

Obviously. "It has something to do with Budapest—"

"You don't have enough access to know about that—"

Toni waved away his concerned tone. "I read between the lines." Clint mentioned it. She still didn't know what was so important about that mission though. "When do I meet the Widow, Coulson?"

He checked his watch. "In five minutes. The suit has already been packed." Coulson pointed to the paper file on the coffee table. The words ' _Top Secret_ ' were stamped in red on it, because Coulson wasn't just old-school, he was also a nerd. "That's your mission file. It's important that you're briefed on this one, so take your time reading it over."

* * *

_1900 HOURS—LOCATION: CALCUTTA, INDIA_

Toni didn't read over the file.

"So," Toni drawled, taking her feet off of Natasha's chair. "How am I supposed to help you recruit Dr. Banner? I mean, we're a hell of a tag-team, but I'm not sure he's into threesomes," Toni joked, just to break the silence between them.

Romanoff eyed her, clearly unamused. "It's in the file, Stark."

Toni rolled her eyes. "Do you know how long it takes to teach yourself thermonuclear physics? I got sick of reading all the files you people hand out." And Banner's file was the dryest by far. There was nothing about Bruce Banner in that file that Toni didn't already know, especially since SHIELD had sent her to 'recruit' Blonsky, that fucker, about a month ago, and had given her ample reason to botch the invitation.

Wasn't it obvious by now that Banner was on the run from the US government after Ross tried to claim him as government property and instigated the fight in Harlem that destroyed most of it? And Toni had known of Bruce even before his accident, for his papers on molecular biology. It was no surprise that he was working as a physician now.

The look Romanoff was giving her was unsettling. "We'll need Banner's full cooperation. I can be persuasive, but you know Banner's type better than me."

Toni picked up her head. "Oh my, was that a compliment? From  _Bonnie_  herself?" Toni chuckled at her own joke while Romanoff shot her an impatient look.

"I don't have time for your antics, Stark," she said after a moment, clearly electing to ignore Toni. "Don't test me."

Toni hummed. "Oh, that's  _bull._  If you're really Clyde's partner, you can handle me," Toni protested. "Speaking of your partnership, what are you thoughts on the capital city of Hungary?"

Natasha Romanoff shot her a cold look, but Toni was unfazed. "That's classified. Look Stark, you're here because you speak this guy's language, and you can help convince him to join us. We need his level of expertise in gamma radiation."

Pouting, Toni leaned back in her hard wooden chair, propping her feet up on Natasha's. They had been sitting in the warehouse for over an hour now, waiting for Romanoff's trap to be sprung.

"Banner's work is—is  _unparalleled_ , but I'm not one for clandestine, black ops missions to third-world countries seeking out a man that's been running from the US government for years." Toni explained in a rush. "And that's what this is, Romanoff. Despite what you say, you're better at this sorta thing than me."

Romanoff looked at her, expressionlessly, and then tilted her head in acquiescence. "Yes, I am."

The genius huffed. "Clint's told me about you," she said suddenly.

"And he's told  _me_  about  _you_." Romanoff sounded  _distinctly_  unimpressed.

Toni moved her feet from Natasha's chair to the edge of the table, disgruntled. So Romanoff was doing all this to test her. To see if Toni was up to snuff. "You don't trust Barton's assessment?" She pressed.

The redhead stared at her. "I trust Barton. But I'd rather make my own assessment."

Toni's eyes narrowed. "I'm beginning to suspect you don't always say what you mean," she stated, but the assassin didn't answer. Instead, Romanoff's eyebrow arched up elegantly, as if to say  _You'll have to figure it out yourself, then_.

The silence stretched, pressing on Toni until she was sure she was going to explode within a minute or so—

A voice crackled through Toni's left ear.  _"Banner is in the vicinity. ETA two minutes."_

Neither of them moved from their positions at the rickety wooden table. It wasn't in the direct line of sight from the door, but they were still unhidden. They'd already established that they'd approach Banner from here.

Toni flashed a smirk towards Natasha when their eyes met again.

"Remind me, who's seducing the good doctor? Or was it both of us?"


	6. Banner

**Chapter 6 – Banner**

The 'bait' waited until the good doctor stepped inside the hut, and then bolted for her escape hatch through the far window. Banner stopped abruptly and realized his position.

He sighed. "Should have gotten paid up front, Banner."

Dr. Bruce Banner was unusually chill for a guy on the run. Toni couldn't see him very well from her position, but he sounded defeated, not panicked. She leaned back in her chair, letting the agent approach him first.

Romanoff's venomous glare towards Toni had nothing to do with that decision.

"You know, for a man that's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle." The agent was using her sexy voice. Toni bit down hard on her tongue before she jokingly accused Romanoff of stealing her idea because it would probably get her shot by the lovely assassin. Just because Romanoff wasn't wearing her catsuit didn't mean she wasn't armed. Toni was pretty sure there was a pistol taped under the table.

"... Avoiding stress isn't the secret." Banner replied, his voice slow and thoughtful. Perhaps a little shakier than usual, unused to English and, well,  _Romanoff_. He set something on the floor, presumably medical supplies.

"Then what is it?" The agent asked. "Yoga?" she suggested teasingly. Romanoff moved away casually, and Banner followed, giving Toni a clear view of the man.

Being on the run had changed Bruce Banner. His hair was coated with a fine layer of dust that everything in India seemed to come with, but under it, there was gray at his temples. He wore clothes so faded he seemed to shrink into his surroundings. He slouched a little, wrung his hands subconsciously, and shuffled his feet aimlessly. It was like he was doing everything he could to disappear right before their eyes.

_He's been reduced to a survivalist,_  Toni noted, sadness creeping up on her. Bruce Banner didn't trust anyone.  _Now, who does that sound like?_

At the same time, Banner noted Toni's presence, but he clearly didn't recognize her at all by the way he gave her a once over, found nothing important about the jeans and  _Blue Swede_ t-shirt she wore, and then moved on.

Toni was a little offended, to be honest. Couldn't people recognize her without plunging necklines and stilettos? Then again, Toni had crafted a very public persona for years before Afghanistan, and part of keeping Iron Man a (very obvious) secret was maintaining the status quo—oh, wait.

Toni mentally kicked herself. Of course Banner didn't recognize her, he'd been on the run for over two years. It was strange not to be immediately noticed. Toni almost wanted to blurt it out, just so she could see what Banner really thought of her.

That thought was instantly filed as  _a bad idea_. She was trying to follow Romanoff's lead, after all, as annoying as Agent Ariel's routine was. So, Toni kept her mouth shut and focused on balancing on the two hind legs of her wooden chair.

"Whatever you do, it's working. It's hard to track you down when there hasn't been an incident in months," Romanoff went on demurely.

"That was smart, you brought me to the edge of the city." Banner said offhandedly, rather than respond to her comment. He peeked out a window to check for movement in the dark. "I suppose you have the place surrounded?"

His voice was so detached, so casually cynical about it all….

Fuck it, Toni wanted to talk.

"They're here for appearances, doc," Toni answered him impulsively. "But come on, Banner. I certainly didn't come along to be smashed. At least, not in the  _literal_  sense." She flashed him her celebrity grin, and Banner stepped closer.

Her grin widened when Banner took a second look at her, putting the pieces together. " _Oh_. Toni Stark? I didn't recognize you," he murmured, and—to Toni's shock—he seemed… calmer, somehow, now that he knew she was here.

Toni raised her eyebrows.

"You wouldn't be here if they were  _just_  trying to bring me in," he pointed out lightly. "Because you don't want to get 'smashed'."

Huh. That's one way of looking at it.  _He's forgotten about Iron Man, though._

Bruce watched her, not wary or disturbed by her presence, but pensive. It made Toni smile again, a slow and  _genuine_  smile because she liked his style.

"Though I do have to wonder: why is Toni Stark endorsing a faceless government agency?"

Toni nodded, and her eyes flickered to Romanoff. "I recommend you ask the faceless government agency instead of me."

Banner looked at Romanoff again, clasping and unclasping his hands.

The agent's smile was measured. "My name is Natasha Romanoff. We're here on behalf of SHIELD."

Banner scoffed and began to walk around the room. Toni could tell it was a nervous, absentminded walk. It used to happen to her a lot when she first started submitting her ideas for review.

"SHIELD... How'd they find me?"

"We never lost you," Romanoff answered. "We've kept our distance. Even kept a few interested parties off your scent."

What was Romanoff  _thinking?_  You don't stalk someone, get rid of their  _other_  stalkers, and then expect them to appreciate you. That was psycho-boyfriend logic.

Toni could smell SHIELD overcompensating from a mile away. She was familiar with Fury's no-nonsense, macho intimidation tactics, and this script had his scent all over it.

Banner didn't seem too pleased either. "Why?" he asked pointedly.

Romanoff was gonna dig herself a hole if she answered that. "You're a hell of a lot more useful than Blonsky," Toni cut in, pulling Banner's attention. "Good, smart people are much harder to come by these days, especially at SHIELD."

Toni knew how to flatter. She knew how to flirt, boost egos, and motivate others to get what she wanted. Maybe that's why Romanoff wanted her on this recruitment trip. But that's not what she was doing. Bruce Banner didn't need to be flattered or tricked into this.

She tapped a few buttons on her phone and tossed it at Banner. He caught it, bewildered. "I don't support SHIELD. I'm here because of  _that_. I'd take a look at it if I were you."

Banner took off his glasses and peered at the screen, skeptical. "What is it?"

Romanoff gave Toni a severe look from behind Banner before she could answer.

"It's called a Tesseract. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet." The assassin coolly walked back to the table, occupying one of two available chairs and inviting Banner to sit down as well. He only wandered a little closer.

"What does Fury want me to do, swallow it?"

"We want you to  _find it_ —"

"They want  _you and me_  to find it before shit hits the fan," Toni piped up, prickling with irritation when Romanoff scoffed quietly at her again. Whatever game Romanoff was playing, Toni wouldn't be a part of it. If Banner was going to offer his help, Toni wasn't going to let him work with SHIELD under false pretenses. "Because they lost their toy and now some guy wants to use it to rule the world."

Banner looked up from the phone, glancing between Romanoff and Toni.

She felt the redhead's glare on the back of her head, but Toni had built up an immunity to angry redheads over the years with Pepper and was also  _incredibly_  reckless, so she whipped around to face Romanoff mockingly.

"I'm sorry, was I supposed to gloss that over?" she apologized sardonically. "Because I don't like euphemisms, I didn't think he would appreciate it either."

Ginger Spice was not pleased with her.

"Just to let you know," Banner cut in unhappily, "I  _actively_  try to avoid global catastrophes…"

"It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace," Romanoff replied before Toni could. Clearly, Romanoff didn't want her help anymore. That was fine with Toni.

"There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, then that's where we'd be."

"So Fury doesn't want the monster?" Banner prompted her again.

"Not that he's told me." Toni grimaced at Romanoff's non-answer.

"And he tells you everything?" Banner countered.

Romanoff was silent. "Talk to Fury. He needs you."

"Needs me in a cage?"

"No one's going to put you in a cage—"

" _STOP LYING TO ME!"_  Banner suddenly screamed, slamming his hands onto the rickety table. Toni was startled so badly that she toppled over in her unbalanced chair.

But of course, before Toni had even hit the ground, Romanoff had seized her gun from a holster beneath the table and was aiming it, safety off, at Banner's face. The man was still as stone.

For a moment, the only sound in the shack was Toni's involuntary groan of pain as she picked herself off the ground.

"...For fuck's sake, Romanoff," Toni said eventually, dusting off her jeans and eyeing the woman's weapon. "What the hell is  _that_  gonna do?" Either it'd kill Banner or provoke him.  _I'm beginning to wonder if_ Romanoff  _read the file._

Banner gave Toni an odd look. "Your lack of self-preservation is astonishing, Ms. Stark," he noted. He didn't give Toni the chance to do anything more than splutter in surprise before his eyes settled onto Romanoff.

"I'm sorry I yelled, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do," he confessed slowly, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace as he watched the agent. "Why don't we do this the easy way, and you put that away and the other guy doesn't make a mess. Okay?"

The redhead in question didn't move from her position, staring at Banner down the barrel of her gun. Seconds ticked by. Toni remembered the protocol for their backup.

"Shirley. Call off the ninjas before we get shot at," Toni said sharply, to break off the staring contest happening between the agent and the doctor.

And finally, Romanoff put down the gun. Her green eyes cut to Toni. "Shirley Temple was a blonde," the agent said shortly. She pressed on her communicator. "Stand down, we're good here."

"'Just for appearances', Ms. Stark," Banner commented flatly, coming closer to the two women again.

"If you appeared to be in a green-skinned, smashing mood, Dr. Banner," Toni corrected him brightly, yanking her communicator out of her ear so she didn't have to hear all the ninja chatter. "By the way, your work on anti-collision electrons? Excellent. I'm a fan."

While Kim Possible stepped away to talk with her ninjas, Toni strolled around the table and held out her hand to Dr. Banner, a wide smirk already back on her face. Banner shook her hand out of habit and then paused when he looked at her smile.

"Usually, people run screaming after I introduce myself," he mused quietly, puzzled by her affability. "Surely there's a file on me?"

Romanoff snorted loudly from across the room. Toni ignored her.

"I'm scared of a lot of things, Dr. Banner. You're not one of them," Toni told him firmly.

"Uh… thanks," he said, almost reluctantly. "I'm not sure that's healthy, but it's a nice sentiment." His lip twitched upward like he was fighting a smile.

Toni smiled for him instead. "Don't mention it, big guy. I'll see you at the base in a few hours." Toni backed away, trying to retrace her steps to where she stashed her travel suit. It was the Mark XV, so she could always try out the body sensors, but that might be a little too flashy for Calcutta. Actually, no, she couldn't try that out since she forgot to inject the nanosensors before leaving… Toni had updated SHIELD's facial recognition code instead.

Romanoff stood in front of her, blocking her exit. "You're not coming on the jet?" She demanded.

Toni shrugged. "Sorry to disappoint. I know I promised you a good time, but I'm sure our buddy Bruce can keep you entertained." She winked at Romanoff and patted Banner on the shoulder as she passed. "My way's faster."

"What does that mean?" Banner asked, watching her curiously.

Pulling the silver and red suitcase out with a flourish, Toni palmed the biometric lock and let the Mark XV unfold and refold around her body. No sensors yet, but the suit was made to be battle-ready in seconds. These days, Toni never knew when she'd need to use it.

She turned to Banner, fully-armored. The doctor stared at her, wide-eyed and awestruck, which was much better than the shock and horror response Toni got from Rhodey and Pepper.

"That's…" Banner found his voice, looking her up and down again, but he didn't finish the sentence. "What the hell?"

Toni was grinning like a maniac under the helmet. The faceplate warped her voice as she spoke. "I think you should read my file, Banner."

Banner readjusted his glasses thoughtfully. "I think I will."


	7. Rogers

**Chapter 7 – Rogers**

* * *

STEVE

The SHIELD agents tasked with bringing Captain America up to speed had done so with great enthusiasm. Not great effectiveness, but Steve couldn't discount their eagerness. Isobel was very sweet, and Ricky was impossibly patient, yet Steve Rogers still didn't quite get this century. Especially people like Natasha Antonia Stark.

Up until his SHIELD 'crash course', the only person Steve had wanted to seek out was Ms. Stark. He'd looked up his old friends from the Commandos, and even got the name of Peggy's nursing home, but—he didn't want to see any of them yet. They were all too close, and now he was so far from their lives. He and Howard were close, but he didn't fight in trenches with him. There was history, and friendship between them, without nearly as much bloodshed or heartache.

When he first heard about Toni, Steve wanted to meet Howard's only living relative. Howard had her much later in life, but that meant she would remember Howard more than Dugan's grandsons or Dernier's niece would remember the men Steve fought beside. That was his thinking, at least, until SHIELD gave him eighty pages of press releases, articles, and reports on the infamous heiress.

Until September of last year, Toni Stark was only known for sumptuous parties, harassing the press, and too many arrests without a criminal record to match. Stark Industries grew larger and more profitable than ever under her leadership, but with that came an appalling number of deaths and ruined lives, though they either won or settled each lawsuit. Some called her a futurist, and others called her the Merchant of Death. Since her return from Afghanistan—and what happened there to make her build Iron Man?—things have changed tremendously for Stark Industries, moving towards "green" energy, but it was such a mess, there were so many rumors and allegations and videos—Good Lord, why do people film so much nonsense?—that Steve didn't know who or what this woman was.

It was probably unfair of him, but despite her intelligence and business sense, Steve couldn't help but think of Toni Stark as the apple that fell very far from the tree.

With all this in mind, Steve was a bit relieved that he didn't have to meet her yet. Agent Romanoff had already contacted Agent Coulson, Steve's current escort at the Helicarrier, and informed them that Ms. Stark wasn't returning from Asia with her and Dr. Banner.

Steve was glad to meet Natasha and Bruce, though.

Steve held out a hand to the meek doctor, wondering how someone like Bruce Banner could become something as ferocious as Agent Coulson described. "Nice to meet you, doctor. The word around here is that you can find us the Cube?"

Bruce shook his hand firmly, but with a wary look in his eyes. "And that's the only word on me?" He asked doubtfully, and there was dark, hunted feel about the way he spoke of it.

Steve supposed that looks could be deceiving. "Only word I care about," he replied honestly.

He didn't think Bruce believed him yet.

Agent Romanoff only spared him a curt look of acceptance. "You caused a lot of excitement around here, Captain," she commented in a cool voice. "I thought Coulson was going to swoon."

Steve felt his mouth twist into a brief, uncomfortable frown. Coulson's enthusiasm sorta threw him for a loop, as Steve hadn't expected anyone from this century to know so much about him. Boy, was he wrong about that. "Right, I... spoke to Agent Coulson on the flight here," Steve acknowledged, trying to maintain the calm disposition that Natasha seemed to carry easily. It was hard when you were blushing.

"Did he ask you to sign his trading cards?" Natasha spoke flatly; Steve almost missed the teasing tone underneath her words until he caught her bright green eyes, flashing with amusement.

Shucks, now he really was blushing. "Uh," he stalled, looking for something to change the subject. There wasn't much to talk about on a... "What exactly is this place?" Steve wondered. "Director Fury called it a Helicarrier, but I don't think I've heard of it before."

Just as Steve asked, an alarm began to sound, and personnel around them were suddenly strapping down all the jets. Steve wandered to the edge of the boat, wondering what was happening.

Bruce followed, and they both recognized that the water around the boat was churning, rising closer to the edge of the carrier. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked, surprised.

Next to him, Bruce wrung his hands together. Natasha appeared and advised them to come to the bridge because "it's about to get a little hard to breathe."

"Great," Bruce replied, running his hand through his hair. It looked like a nervous gesture. "They're putting me in a pressurized, enclosed space,  _underwater_..."

Steve had to admit, it didn't sound like a good plan. He started to follow Agent Romanoff when the tarmac shifted, throwing him off balance.

In a submerging submarine, you'd expect the movement to be downward, towards the sea. It seemed that SHIELD liked to exceed Steve's expectations: the ground was moving upwards.

Steve moved a little closer to the edge again and saw that there were huge engines churning the water away, at least four of them, lifting the carrier into the air.

"Oh," Bruce rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "No, this is much worse."

It was quite impressive if you asked Steve, but he figured he would keep that to himself for now, if only to save Bruce the trouble of thinking about being stuck in a giant, floating metal box. God knows he owed Nick Fury ten bucks over this one, though. He didn't think anything would surprise him after he read about the Hulk and Toni Stark's crazy gadgets.

At least now, Steve knew better than to underestimate Nick Fury.

* * *

TONI

It goes without saying that Toni didn't fly herself straight to Fury's floating metal deathtrap for a little team-bonding with the boy band. Without Clint around it wasn't much of a band. Banner was fun, but Toni wasn't recruited on the same terms as the doctor. If she was going to be useful, she needed to be able to access Iron Man at any time.

Within a few minutes of arriving in New York, Toni was standing on a lit platform, injecting nanosensors into her forearms. It didn't hurt very much, not after the years of manual labor, open flames and lab accidents that her arms had been through, but she had to stay still while the bots settled and it  _sucked_.

"Dummy, don't move. I swear, if you spill that on me I'll donate you to a public school." Toni warned, eyeing the protein shake with mistrust. "JARVIS, how badly will starkium react if it comes into direct contact with strawberries?"

_~With any luck, you've properly sealed the reactor, and your question is immaterial.~_

Toni hummed. "Well I can't really check, can I?" she pointed out, disgruntled. With great effort, she lifted her head enough to catch the straw in her mouth.

_~Just two more minutes, Ms. Stark,~_  JARVIS told her sympathetically.  _~And then the sensors will be calibrated and you'll be free to test drive your latest stroke of brilliance.~_

The AI didn't even sound sarcastic this time. Toni tipped her head back and laughed indulgently. "Oh J, I can't even  _begin_  to describe how satisfying it is to hear my own invention compliment me on more of my inventions."

Dummy beeped excitedly, expressing his own compliments, and knocked over the glass of strawberry smoothie. Toni squealed in shock as cold liquid dribbled over her stomach, and then banged her knee on a workbench.

"Son of a BITCH."

_~Calibration complete.~_  JARVIS announced pleasantly.

* * *

After a few hours of testing out the Mark XV—there were a few kinks that she should iron out, like the speed issues and the fact that her helmet always tried to bash her face in when it reacted to the sensors—Toni was more or less satisfied. JARVIS had just set up a new flight pattern through the five boroughs for her, but Toni dismissed the display.

"J, any luck tracking down Barton?" she asked tentatively, doing a barrel-roll through Queens and then turning around before she flew too close to the suburbs.

_~I'm afraid Barton is very good at covering his tracks. However, there is evidence that Loki is in Germany.~_

Toni's eyes widened. "He's already in public?"

JARVIS brought up the image in question.  _~A ninety-two percent match. Incoming call from Agent Coulson.~_

With a sigh, Toni answered. "What's he doing in Germany?" She demanded without preamble.

" _We don't know yet. The team's suiting up. Quinjet leaves in 2 minutes."_

Coulson seemed more blasé than usual, but she appreciated the head's up. "That doesn't sound like an invite."

" _Not an official one. You're welcome to join, but Fury thinks Captain America can handle it alone."_

Toni paused. She'd forgotten. Out of all the personnel files Toni had received, Steve Rogers' file had interested her the least. Howard tended to bring up Steve a lot when he was being an asshole and thinking about it left a bad taste in her mouth. Once she started thinking about Howard, it was impossible to stop. Why wasn't there any bourbon in the lab?

"Already bringing out the Captain? Does he still wear stars and stripes?" Toni teased, brushing aside her discomfort.

" _I helped with the new design,"_ Coulson replied, a little too quickly. " _He's the real deal, Stark. Of course, there's stars and stripes."_

She grinned as JARVIS began rerouting fuel for a long-distance flight. "If you say so, Coulson, it must be true," Toni conceded, rolling her eyes. Coulson was the biggest Captain America geek on the East Coast, after all. He still nagged her about the re-designed shield Toni had in her lab.

" _You should tell him about that prototype shield,"_  Coulson added as if he'd read her mind. Toni sighed dramatically, but the agent ignored it. " _He told me about throwing the shield in enclosed spaces and being able to calculate its trajectory; being able to use those moves in an open environment—"_

"What? I didn't catch all of your nerd-out, I'm going through a tunnel." She rolled her eyes, and read the data collected from SHIELD.

" _No, you're not,"_ Coulson said flatly.

"No, I'm not," Toni forced herself to laugh. JARVIS's flight plan was all laid out for her, down to the attack formations she could take in Stuttgart against their unknown player, Loki.

Coulson was quiet, but still on the line. " _Will I see you in Germany?"_  He asked eventually.

Toni exhaled sharply, remembering to breathe. "No," she said before she could think about it further. "Rogers needs the workout more than me. I think—Loki isn't the priority here. The Cube is still out there, isn't it?"

_If he isn't in Stuttgart with Loki, he's probably with the Cube._

Coulson hummed in thought. " _Well, I wouldn't put it that way, but yes. We still need to locate the Tesseract, even if we capture Loki,"_  the agent admitted hesitantly.

"Fury didn't call me in anyway," Toni pointed out, and was her heart beating faster? No, she was just weird. "The sooner Banner and I locate the Cube, the sooner I can stop whatever Loki's planning, while Rogers and Romanoff stop Loki."

" _Divide and conquer,"_ Coulson said, considering it. " _The Tesseract is dangerous enough on its own. You'll need to contain it, somehow."_

Toni huffed in momentarily delight. She hadn't been sure that Coulson would agree. "Don't get ahead of yourself. We still need to find the damn thing. Get Banner ready, I'll be there in thirty."

She ended the call before Coulson could respond, and brought up schematics Eric Selvig had been using while testing the Tesseract for SHIELD. She'd read through the files already, but a refresher never hurt. The Mark XV was her fastest suit yet, but it would still take time to reach the Helicarrier.

Her crash-course in astrophysics came rushing to the forefront of her mind, and Toni starting making notes on Dr. Selvig's work. Soon, her mind was fully occupied by theories, calculations, and energy readings, leaving no room at all for Captain America. There was only the Tesseract.

And Barton.

* * *

Bruce Banner flitted around the lab, mumbling under his breath. Every few minutes he would pause and take off his glasses to look at an instrument properly, and Toni was beginning to suspect he didn't need the glasses at all. She had set up a few programs to bypass SHIELD's mainframe and cut down on their processing time, so now Toni was just observing Bruce and waiting for her virus to reach SHIELD's archives.

"The readouts are  _incredible_ ," he raised his voice to address Toni, and then stopped, seeing that she was already watching him. "They were right about the gamma signature—but without you, this would take weeks to process."

He took off his glasses again. Toni counted five times in the past hour. "I thought you'd be out there with Captain Rogers. That suit seems pretty useful."

Toni shrugged carelessly. "Taking down a dictator in Germany seems more like Rogers' thing. Me? I know weapons. The sooner we recover the Tesseract, the better. Otherwise, we'll be mopping up SHIELD's collateral damage, and that's  _not_  my department."

"So once we've tracked it down, you're going to just… get the Cube yourself?" Banner asked, an odd look crossing his face. "Doesn't this guy have a bunch of brainwashed government agents doing his bidding?"

Toni paced the room, checking a few screens to avoid looking Banner in the eye. "Not really a problem for me, sweet pea. In fact, without Loki around it should be easier to break whatever control he has over Clint—and Selvig, and the others."

She felt her gaze on her back. "Who's Clint?"

"Agent Barton," Toni clarifies, but uncertainty rises in her throat anyway. "I used to work with him." Clint was her friend (currently sans benefits), and while that gave her more reason to search for the Cube, it wasn't why she was researching instead of going out to Germany.

_Right,_  Toni scoffed to herself,  _You're doing this because you don't want to look at Captain Perfect._

Fury didn't call her in. So it was fine.  _Why doesn't it feel fine?_

"You know, if you're impressed by all this," Toni gestured around the lab quickly, "You should come by Stark Tower. Ten floors of R&D, it's like Candyland."

Banner froze like a deer in headlights. It took a moment for him to realize that was a legitimate offer, and then he looked down and cleared his throat. "Uh, thanks, but last time I was in New York, I kind of broke… Harlem," Banner said, fidgeting as he glanced towards her before quickly averting his eyes to the screen in front of him.

Toni wandered closer, taking a quick look at some of the gamma readings. There was nothing he didn't already know on the screen, and she eyed the doctor curiously. "That's hardly an excuse," she argued, "I know what happened with Blonsky and Ross. I'm still inviting you." She stopped when she reached the counter Bruce was stationed at.

"Right," Bruce watched her warily. "But… why?"

Her eyebrows rose up. "If you can tolerate me for this long, you're golden. I shocked you like, twice already, and  _nothing_."

"So that  _was_  on purpose," Bruce mused, but he only looked pensive. "I knew you couldn't have made that circuit mistake twice."

Toni's eyebrows were getting friendly with her hairline. "What the hell are you smoking? No one's this mellow  _all_  the time."

"The secret's actually Pilates. Agent Romanoff was close." Banner's reply was so casual, Toni believed it for an embarrassingly long moment.

Bruce gave a short, gentle laugh at the look on her face, and Toni finally realized he was joking. "Would ya look at that? He has a sense of humor," Toni grinned, feeling accomplished.

Banner rolled his eyes, but there was still a small smile on his face. He looked at the readings again. "Without any more sample data, we can't do much else to calibrate this search," he stated, "And we've been at this for hours."

Toni perked up. "Coffee break?"

"I was going to say lunch break—or, maybe it's breakfast." He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to remember. "Either way, I was thinking we should find a cafeteria."

Toni wrinkled her nose. "I don't think I've ever, in my entire life, eaten cafeteria food. And if television is to be believed, it's always shitty."

"You won't know that until you try," Bruce said sagely. "It's time to broaden your horizons."

"And by that, you mean stop being a snobby rich girl?" Toni deduced, but a smile pulled at her lips.

"You said it, not me."

* * *

Later, Coulson found the two of them on the bridge, arguing over peanut butter.

"Don't even try, Banner. No one wants chunks in their sandwich."

"If you like peanut butter, the odds are that you like peanuts as well. Why not have both at the same time? Besides, the texture's more interesting."

"You're an abomination, you know that?"

"You're thinking of Blonsky."

"Ha!" Toni grinned and offered him more freeze-dried blueberries. After vetoing on the cafeteria, they had compromised on several healthy vending machine snacks, because apparently, that's something SHIELD had as well. Bruce took the proffered berries, somewhat hesitantly. Toni suspected he liked them more than he'd admit.

"I've just made contact with Romanoff," Coulson told them unceremoniously.

Toni eyed the agent's careful lack of expression. "Any problems in Europe? It's been awhile since they left." She kept her question vague. Like Banner, she still wasn't sure how long she'd spent on the ship. It was easy to lose track of time working with Bruce.

Coulson set down a tablet with a shrug. "They hit a bit of a snare on the return trip. The other Asgardian showed up. Captain Rogers talked him out of taking Loki off planet, so they're still enroute—"

"Whoa, whoa. Back up. Thor showed up?" Toni asked, incredulous. "I've looked at Foster's reports, her Einstein-Rosen Bridge hasn't shown any activity." Bruce made a small noise of surprise, understanding her implications.

But the agent regarded her dispassionately. "Am I supposed to know what that means?"

Ugh, Coulson was so pedestrian. "It means there's no way for Thor to  _get_  here. But you said he wanted to take Loki back to Asgard. How was he planning to do that?"

Clearly, Agent Coulson didn't like this question because he didn't immediately answer her, not even to say something annoyingly sassy. "ETA in five minutes," he said finally, getting to his feet. "Ask him yourself. Maybe you'll have more luck than Cap talking to him. That hammer is something else."

Toni paused, and then the warning in his tone registered. She watched Coulson's retreating back with alarm. "Wait, what are you saying? Did he attack Rogers?  _Phil!_ I need details!"

He was already gone.

She turned to Bruce, but he only put up his hands in defeat. "Hey, you're welcome to interrogate the angry Norse God, but I'm out."

Pouting, Toni stood and activated the holo-screens around the bridge, switching a monitor to the security cameras just as the quinjet touched down. "Wanna watch the show?" Toni asked, already streaming the footage to the screen closest to Banner. "I'm guessing the ones in capes are the Asgardians."

"Hmm," was all the answer Toni received from Bruce.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Would you like to share your thoughts with the class, Dr. Banner?"

He responded with a half-smile. "You can just call me Bruce, you know. And it's funny: Thor looks more upset about being here than Loki, don't you think?"

Her gaze fell back to the screens. "You think? Maybe he'll join our club," Toni quipped, but his words got her thinking. The beefcake in a red cape stomping towards the bridge seemed pretty angry.

"Again," Bruce spoke up, "You're welcome to question him, Ms. Stark, but please wait until I'm gone. He's bringing his magic hammer."

Toni stared down the doctor. "So…you don't wanna be here when he shows me his— _ahem_ —magic hammer?"

For the first time, Banner was taken aback. " _Really?_ " He asked, downright aghast.

"What? You're a man of science, surely you want to see that hammer at work too," Toni said, dead serious.

He huffed. Toni thought he looked a little pink around the ears. "I'm not talking to you."

She bit the inside of her mouth to keep a straight face. "My interest is purely academic. I wanna see him swing his hammer for me." Toni paused, starting to run out of steam. She wasn't entirely sure that that made sense, but she added a pelvic thrust for emphasis because she was twelve.

Bruce rolled his eyes. "If you're done being twelve…"

A grin nearly split her face in two. Banner was clearly her other half, they were so in-sync.

"I bet he could nail me real good with his magic hammer," she added, because she had to.

"Toni..."

"Okay, okay. I'm done, I swear."

Toni cackled, Bruce face-palmed, and three more 'Avengers' stepped onto the bridge.

Romanoff cocked her head to the side. "Something funny, Stark?" She looked distinctly more ruffled than the last time Toni had seen her, and as if the room could sense it, the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees with the Black Widow's entrance.

Guess taking down Loki wasn't as easy as Fury thought.

"Not anymore," Toni replied, equally chilly. "Where's the would-be conqueror?"

Romanoff's eyes flitted to the holo-screens. "Secured." She switched the footage to the cameras outside a large, circular holding cell. "The Director is going to speak with him. If you'll be quiet for once in your life, perhaps we can listen."

Toni took a moment to bask in the Black Widow's glare. Romanoff was still mad about Calcutta, it seemed, but only enough to engage in passive-aggressive remarks. Toni plopped into the seat between Bruce and Rogers, spinning herself slowly to face Romanoff. "Agent, are you trying to insult me? Do try harder, otherwise, it's no fun for me."

The redhead looked at her sharply, eyes cold as hell. "Don't test me, Stark. I'm not like the other agents you've worked with."

Toni was seconds from making another biting remark, just to dig deeper and see how far she could push the Black Widow, but she held back. Romanoff didn't just look angry, she was sad. Just a little bit. It was a tiny blip of an emotion that Toni might've imagined, but… Natasha Romanoff was friends with Clint Barton, and it would make sense if she were the tiniest bit worried about him, like Toni was.

For that, for her relationship with Barton, Toni stopped. It wouldn't be fun until Clint was around to mediate, anyway.

"I've only worked with two other agents," she huffed instead, leaning back in her chair. "You're not special—oh, look at that, Patchy's in the house."

The others all turned their attention to the monitors, and indeed, Director Fury was already introducing himself to the demigod known as Loki.

Toni kicked up her feet onto the table and pulled out her phone. Only twenty more minutes until JARVIS broke through to the archives of SHIELD.


	8. Thor, Pt. 1

WARNING: for some reason, i wrote this in a different tense, i'm so sorry? this is the tense for the rest of the story?

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Thor**

She's perfectly aware that she's cornering Thor with all the finesse of a bull in a china shop, but Toni pays no mind to the judgmental eyes of Romanoff or Rogers. Bruce seems amused, at least, but he already knows that Toni likes to test limits. She curls a hand around Thor's bicep fearlessly, and babbles in an endless stream of black-hole thermodynamics. No one looks twice at Toni when she's being loud, obnoxious  _and_  scientific. No one thinks to keep an eye on her when she drags a Norse God into her lab for a private tête-à-tête.

Thor's not as uncooperative as Coulson implied (which doesn't surprise her, Coulson was a drama queen unlike any other). But even Toni doesn't expect him to be so...  _nice_. Where was the blundering, angry, giant man she'd heard so much about? Toni turns around, just to make sure he's still there. And he's there: neither annoyed or angry with her. Toni thinks there might be a touch of fondness in his eyes.

"What is it you wish to ask me, my lady?" He prompts her, leaning against a workbench. His eyes flit to the monitors around the table, skimming over the algorithm with faint amusement. Suddenly, Toni isn't one-hundred percent certain that he can't understand it.

She's annoyed with herself. Thor is the  _last_  person she should underestimate, and demanding answers out of him like an unsuspecting intern was a terrible idea.

"I… I don't think I introduced myself, first of all," Toni says, holding back several thousand questions. She smiles carefully. "I'm Antonia Stark. I'll be the one in a suit of red armor if an alien invasion breaks out." She tries to sound sardonic, but it doesn't come easily. After all, there might be a real,  _actual_  invasion if she can't find the Tesseract… jeez, today is such a clusterfuck.

"Lady Stark," Thor corrects himself, nodding in a way that could almost be called a bow. Maybe it was a bow? Either way, she finds it flattering. More people should bow to her, damn it. "I am Thor, son of Odin All-Father. I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield. It is rare to meet one that is both scholar and soldier."

The word 'soldier' makes her eye twitch, but Toni is willing to blame the language barrier. Thor doesn't seem to have a malicious bone in his god-like body. "I wanted to ask you a few things, if you don't mind? I've been working on tracking down the Tesseract, but I've also read Dr. Selvig's research, and—"

"I do not think I can assist you with such matters," Thor says quickly, a frown pulling at his face. "Your world's sciences bear similarities to what I know as magic, but I have tried to explain these things to your people before… my attempts proved to be in vain." He almost sounds apologetic.

Toni shakes her head. "No, it's not about the science. It's just that—you tried taking Loki out of SHIELD custody."

Naturally, Thor was uncomfortable at the reminder of their conflict. "I was not fully aware of your people's involvement," he explains.

"I'm not blaming you. If you had taken Loki out of this equation, I think that would've helped," Toni admits. The question is there without her asking it.  _Why did you let us bring Loki here?_ "It wouldn't  _end_  his plans, and I'm sure Fury would prefer he faced charges on American soil, but getting Loki off Earth would prevent any further moves on his part."

Loki's cooperation irks her because it's clear he doesn't think he's lost yet. And Loki  _hasn't_  lost. He's a threat as long as he's on the planet, scheming, as far as she's concerned.

Thor is giving her another strange look. Eventually, he speaks. "Your support heartens me, but..." His shoulders lower by a fraction, but enough for Toni to sense defeat. "I cannot return to Asgard without the Tesseract. And Loki's quarrel is with me, so I will remain until I can put an end to his schemes."

_That…_  is not what Toni expects. And it's complete  _garbage_ in light of Loki's actions on Earth. "If Loki's problem is  _you_ , why is he bringing an army to conquer  _my_  world?" She demands.

Thor's eyes darken. "I...do not know. He sent the Destroyer into this world to wreak havoc, with little regard to mortal life. But even that was to thwart my return to Asgard. I thought Loki gone, lost to the Void. He has returned,  _changed_ , and with new ambitions for this realm."

His frankness alarms her. Not to mention whatever the hell  _The Void_  is. Toni turns away, not wanting to let anything slip through her expression as she thinks. But all Toni can think is,  _The world isn't ready for this level of warfare,_ and the fact that it's already here, looming over them, has Toni grasping at straws. Not even Loki's  _brother_  knows what he's doing, so how can she hope to plan against his moves?

Her eyes fall to the glass container holding Loki's scepter. It had been moved to the lab sometime during Fury's interrogation of their prisoner, under the assumption that Bruce and Toni would analyze it for SHIELD. She doesn't doubt it could be useful, but... Toni wants nothing more than to  _break_  it into a million pieces. For Clint.

"Do you know anything about this thing?" Toni asks vacantly, staring at the gilded staff. It held a crystal between two spear-points, glowing in a yet-unknown pattern that reminds Toni, frustratingly, of the unusual properties of the Tesseract and Howard's extensive research on it. "Loki used it to turn SHIELD agents against their own. There's been cases of mind control before, but I've never heard of a fancy space wand doing the controlling."

Thor peers at the scepter for a long moment. Long enough for Toni to grow uncomfortable with his intense, unreadable stare. Finally, he shakes his head, and leans back from the receptacle. "Hm. I have never seen such a weapon before, but even I can sense how powerful its magic is," Thor says gravely. Then his expression falters. "Loki was always more skilled—and more interested—in the art of magecraft than I."

Toni does not acknowledge the last part. "If  _you_  don't know where it's from, how did Loki end up with it? Where do you even  _find_  something like this?" She keeps her tone light and careless, but inside, Toni wonders what else is out there that Asgard and Earth can't see. Is she paranoid for thinking like this?

Thor's expression grows thoughtful. "There exists realms beyond the branches of Yggdrasil. We call it the Void, but that does not mean it is entirely empty."

...That's exactly what  _void_  means, though? Toni's suspicions of a language barrier grow until it becomes a headache to think about all that was lost in translation.  _The portal. How do we stop the portal?_

She's about to ask Thor about Dr. Selvig when her phone begins to vibrate in her pocket. Toni freezes and pulls out the phone, already knowing what the alert is for. "Uh," Toni hedges, glancing at Thor's expectant face. "Don't move? I still want to talk." Thor simply nods again, unoffended, because he's the  _nicest alien she's ever met_ , and Toni is free to connect her phone to three monitors in the lab.

The files are up—and Toni feels as though SHIELD's gone ahead and dumped a bucket of ice water over her head. Her heart pounds, so loud she can hear the blood rushing in her ears.  _What the fuck is Phase II, and how does Fury have so many HYDRA weapons?_

Rogers. Of course. He wasn't the only relic they found buried in ice.

_This can't be happening._ But Toni's already reviewing the last few words Loki spoke to Fury.

Unlimited power.

A warm light for all mankind.

Bruce had noticed it as soon as Toni had. After spending hours in the lab, patiently listening to Toni blab on about her clean energy project, how could he not? And… after spending a month in her company, Clint knew just as much. Meaning that Nicholas Fury knew just as much about her newest contract.

"What is this?" Thor asks, and Toni nearly jumps as his closeness. Who knew the big guy could tiptoe? "You seem upset, Lady Stark."

"It's—" She's too angry. She can't  _think_. "It's utter  _bullshit_ , and I'm going to  _tear Nick Fury a new one,_ " Toni states frankly. SHIELD held onto the Tesseract for years, but they never went further with their research until they found Rogers' plane and recruited Erik Selvig. "No wonder we've got aliens at our front door," Toni mumbles, though, looking at Thor, it could be the other way around.

"What do you mean?" Thor asks benignly, but there's an edge of worry to his tone. "Your people are… building an arsenal?"

Toni has to stop herself from snarling. "They're hardly my people at this point."

His frown becomes more pronounced. "That is worrisome. I did not know SHIELD meant to draw on the Tesseract's power in this way. You mortals do not yet understand the forces at work here."

"Hey," Toni cocks an eyebrow at the Thunderer, leery of his tone. " _I'm_  not the one toying with the space cube. I don't  _do_  weapons. Not anymore."

Thor dips his head in something that barely passes as an acknowledgment. "Aye, perhaps not you. But there is no excuse for your fellow mortals—and they  _are_  your fellow mortals, just as they are my fellow allies. We are both  _here_ , after all, working with SHIELD, even though we may question their motives."

Toni doesn't answer immediately because he has a point. She's always known that SHIELD was shady. But she still wants to  _know._ There's no reason to build weapons like this unless SHIELD wants to be the biggest bully on the playground. And how did Loki know about all this before  _Toni Stark?_

_Barton and Selvig._

Toni shakes her head and inhales slowly through her nose before she starts a damn tirade. She pulls the files off the monitors, and turns to Thor, determined to stay on track. He still seems disturbed, by both the files and Toni's reaction to them, but Toni draws his attention away. "What do you know about Erik Selvig's work?"

"Erik is a friend. I suspect Loki knows this, and chose him for this reason," Thor says immediately. Toni already knows this part, so she waits, silently urging him on. "I… he worked with Lady Jane on tracking the activity of portals. I had no idea they brought him to work with the Cosmic Cube."

Toni already knows by now that Thor is a dead end, but she still has to try. There's an  _army_  coming, and her 'allies' haven't done a thing about it besides asking Toni, Banner, and an  _antique war hero_  to retrieve their stolen property. An item they're using to build weapons behind Toni's back (and it  _was_  behind her back; Fury knew she wouldn't have anything to do with this  _mission_  if she'd been told what they wanted it for).

She might've been quiet for too long. Or maybe she looked worried to him. Either way, Thor's humongous hand lands on her shoulder with little warning, making her flinch. Her knees buckle, but she stands her ground and cranes her head up to see the man's face.

"Shall I leave you to your work, my lady? You are thinking quite deeply about  _something_ , it seems." Thor smiles in an understanding, but helpless way. "I did warn you. I am not yet proficient enough in these subjects to offer you much help."

He isn't wrong. Nothing in the lab would help Toni solve this equation, including, unfortunately, Thor. What she needs is a way to prevent the portal, wherever it is, from ever being used. Or, if activated, the best way to destroy it and anything trying to come through it. But she doesn't even know where the Tesseract  _is_ , and her program wasn't going to give them results fast enough if there was no other way to narrow its focus.

Toni exhales, letting her shoulders slump under Thor's hand. "I think I'll need Banner's help to work out the rest of this," Toni agrees, but then she catches Thor's eye and makes an effort to be genuine. "But I'm glad to have the chance to meet you, Thor. And I think everything you've told me is important—or  _will_  be, soon enough."

Thor's eyes brighten considerably, and Toni thinks it's worth the slight exaggeration. "Your praise is undue, but I admire you for it all the same, Lady Stark. Shall I tell Dr. Banner of your request?"

A smile works its way onto her face, unbidden. "Just call me Toni, big guy. I can contact Banner from here, no need to run my messages."

"Very well, Lady…  _Antonia_." His grin is distinctly more impudent this time around, and it's enough to startle a huff of laughter out of her.

Toni watches Thor step back, and her eyes drift away from his imposing figure. The Norse God is at the edge of the room when Toni suddenly addresses him again.

"Hey, Thor?"

"Yes?"

"I think I  _do_  need your help, actually."

* * *

_STEVE_

It's sheer coincidence that Steve's in the right hallway to witness Nick Fury march across the Helicarrier with two technicians at his side, chattering about a security breach.

"Sir?" Steve trails after the man as he passes, sensing the urgency of it all.

"Rogers, with me," Fury says, not even turning to face him or slowing down. "I need to have a word with Ms. Stark about  _boundaries_  and  _trust._ "

His face falls, but he catches up with the Director regardless. "What's happened? Isn't Ms. Stark working for SHIELD?"

Fury's gaze flashes, contritely, before he growls, "Stark only works in a consulting capacity for a reason.  _This_  is that reason. She's a loose canon, and now she's broken into our secure files." A tendon in his jaw flexes dangerously.

" _What?"_  Steve gasps, horrified. "Why would she do that?" Ms. Stark was a little difficult, but he had never taken her for an actual danger to SHIELD.

Director Fury only growls and punches in an access code to the lab. The doors slide open, and behind it is  _chaos_.

"YOU THINK IT'S ALRIGHT TO BUILD WEAPONS WITH THIS? That's fucking  _bullshit,_ Romanoff, and you know it! Banner, you know this isn't right."

"I…" Dr. Banner wrings his hands, standing a good distance away from an irate Toni Stark. "I didn't come here for this. Natasha, did you know about Phase Two?"

Romanov is fixated on Banner. "Doctor, you should think about removing yourself from this situation."

"I  _was_  removed," he snaps, with more vitriol than Steve expected.

"Banner," Steve barks, stepping up to Natasha's side. "Stand down."

Stark laughs. "Oho, the boy scout's come in! And you! Fury! Who the  _fuck_  do you think you are?"

"I  _think_  I'm the damn director of this airship," Fury snarls, "And you're out of line, Stark."

She bares her teeth. "Where's the line, Nicky? Where's the line between preventing war and provoking it? Where's the line between protecting us and  _ringing a goddamn bell_ to tell the entire universe we have an uncontrollable,  _unlimited_  source of destructive power? I don't think you know what a line  _is,_  and I'm not going to be a part of your fuck-up any longer."

She makes to leave, and Fury grabs her arm. "Where do you think you're going, Stark?"

The young woman wrenches her arm back. "I'm getting off this death trap before I die on it, Fury. I'm  _out_."


	9. Thor, Pt. 2

_A/N: I'm trying something different with this chapter by disregarding all sense of continuity, tell me what you think!_

* * *

**Chapter 9 — Thor, Pt. 2**

Bruce Banner wakes up slowly and already knows he's just ended his year-long streak of no incidents. Only the other guy could leave him this lethargic. Plus, he's standing in a crater of crumbling cement, buck-naked.

He should've stayed in India.

A pile of clothes drops down beside him, sending up a puff of dust that has Bruce coughing as he yanks on a baggy pair of sweatpants. He pulls on the t-shirt and rubs his eyes. Aw man, he broke his glasses too. He'd been able to hold onto that pair for years, even through a few incidents, but it seemed as though they couldn't survive meeting Toni Stark. And yes, Bruce definitely blames her for all this. Her and her dramatic speeches and secret plans.

"Are you okay, Dr. Banner?" Asks a low, familiar voice. At the edge of the crater, a blond head peeks out at him.

Bruce squints at the blurry head, and then the empty warehouse around him. "Oh, I'm just dandy. Had a nice nap and everything."

"It did not seem very pleasant for you."

The doctor shrugs, too exhausted to feel strongly about his lifelong ailments. "It's not."

He rises to his feet, and Thor steps over the ridge of the crater, deciding that it's safe to approach the doctor. Bruce squints at him some more. "Are you okay? You look a little…ruffled."

The Norse God pauses to give Bruce a bright grin. "Fear not, friend! Under different circumstances, we would be parading around the city to celebrate our glorious battle! Alas, such merriment shall have to wait." Thor beckons to the doctor, and the two of them begin to climb out of the crater that the Hulk left behind.

"Right," Bruce says slowly, trying to piece together what he could. Toni leaving the base. Then, the attack that brought out the Other Guy, but between those two things… Bruce looks at Thor again, realizing what was different.

"Hey, uh, Thor?"

"Yes, doctor?"

"Where's the, uh...?"

* * *

_"WHERE IS IT?!"_  Loki bellows once more, lifting Nick Fury up by the collar of his jacket. "Where is the scepter?"

The director only curls back his lip into a bloody, triumphant snarl. "It is my great pleasure to inform you that I have no idea, asshat."

Behind him, Maria Hill and Phil Coulson are on their knees, held at gunpoint. Neither of them had answers either. Loki snarls at their blank faces, baring his teeth. "If none of you have what I want, well, then I have no use of you little—"

A loud beep drowns out the alien god's declaration, and a large glass monitor flickers, then a glowing blue logo appears on a black screen. A smooth, captivating voice drifts out of the intercom system.

_"Hey there Loki. I hear you're looking for your stick."_

He releases the mortal abruptly, leaving Fury to collapse onto the floor beside Maria Hill. Loki glares at the screen, then his eyes dart around, searching. He scoffs. "You do not know what power you are meddling with, woman."

_"Oh, I'm beginning to. No wonder you think you can rule the world with this thing."_

A loud crash reverberates from outside the conference room. Men shouting, gunfire, alarms blaring. The ship is still a war zone. He may have their commanders, but the agents are still fighting.

Loki is losing this battle.

He growls at the screen again, and the crushes three monitors with a wild sweep of his arm. He beckons to his men. "We're leaving."

"Sir, what about the scepter?" One the mortals under his command questions.

Loki breezes past them headed towards the deck. "It is not here."

* * *

"Thor, I don't think SHIELD realizes what they have here," Toni says slowly, her eyes magnetized to the sight before her. She pulls up a chart from a nearby monitor. "Nobody knows what it is, and yet they brought it onboard with Loki anyway."

"Loki does not seem terribly upset to be parted from it," Thor frowns. "But it is the source of his newer powers."

"It's got similar readings to the Tesseract, too. Thor, this—this can't stay on the ship."

"I agree, Antonia. But it is in SHIELD's hands now, is it not?"

"Just because a baby's holding the car keys doesn't mean you should let 'em drive."

"Car… you mean your metal carriages? What does that have to do with—?"

"Let me reiterate. Just because a mortal baby has its hands on a—a sword—doesn't mean you should let them play with it."

"Ah, a metaphor! And in this scenario, the sword is a scepter, the baby is SHIELD, and together we are parents?"

Whatever, okay. "Sure thing, Papa Thor. Now, I think we should confiscate this dangerous weapon before little SHIELD tries to use it like a toy. Or, worse, Loki tries to take it back."

"Where does Loki fit into the metaphor?"

"He's the maniac that left a sword in the hands of our, uh, child."

Thor pauses, eyeing Toni with new worry in his eyes. "You think he did this on purpose."

Toni shifts uneasily and looks down. "Yes, I do. Trickster God, right?"

The Norse God exhales slowly and nods. "I see. Then you ought to get the scepter as far away from him as possible."

"That's what I need your help with. I have a hunch about where the Tesseract is—I just need to talk it over with Banner, but if I'm right, I need to leave. But I can't take the scepter with me, so that's where you come in."

Thor raises his eyebrows. "A diversion?" She nods. "How exciting. What shall you do?"

Toni gives him a grim smile. "Leave that to me, Odinson."

* * *

_"Where's the line, Nicky? Where's the line between preventing war and provoking it? Where's the line between protecting us and ringing a goddamn bell to tell the entire universe we have an uncontrollable, unlimited source of destructive power? I don't think you know what a line is, and I'm not going to be a part of your fuck-up any longer."_

_Fury tries to stop her. Steve doesn't move an inch._

_"I'm getting off this death trap before I die on it, Fury. I'm out."_

Steve stares at the automatic door as it shuts behind Toni Stark. The room echoes hollowly, and in the persisting silence, he can hear every groan and creak of metal. A brief, overwhelming sense of fear washes over him at the words  _death trap_ , but he squashes it in an instant. Surely, Ms. Stark was just being dramatic.

_She wasn't being dramatic when she brought up those weapon schematics. But that doesn't justify leaving, not in the middle of a fight. She wasn't even in Stuttgart, so she doesn't understand what's at stake._  Steve frowns, frustrated. He didn't like Ms. Stark to begin with, but just—just giving up? That's unacceptable to him.

"Would someone please patch that security breach?" Fury scowls into his comm, and the red warning lights stop flashing on a few of the computer screens. "Goddamn Stark, breaking into my goddamn servers…"

Steve's hands ball into fists as he turns to the director. "How could you let someone like her onto this team?" He demands.

The director's eye flashes in warning, and Steve lowers his eyes. "Because there are no others like her, Captain Rogers," Fury says after a moment. "You haven't been out of the ice long enough to know it. But in today's world? Stark's a valuable asset, even when she pulls shit like this."

Steve looks at the director for a long, unhappy moment. Then he sighs and shakes his head. "I've seen enough of  _today's world_. Stark is part of the problem. Maybe you've seen too much to know it."

Fury gives him an unreadable look, and then he scoffs. "Maybe she's both," he says nebulously and strides out of the lab, leather coat whipping around the corner.

Steve glances at Natasha to see how she was taking this development. Stark is gone, Fury's not even a little concerned, and they still have an alien prisoner aboard their metal death trap of a military base. This is not a death trap, Steve reminds himself hastily.

Romanoff meets his eyes briefly, and Steve doesn't know what to think. The threat of an invasion is still imminent, but essentially, nothing has changed with Stark's departure. She did her job, and Dr. Banner is still working on their equipment, however unhappy he might be with Fury's other projects. Steve, Natasha, and Thor are on standby until they can find the Cube.

Dr. Banner has shuffled off to the far side of the room, putting several bright screens between him and everyone else, but Romanoff no longer seems concerned about him. Actually, she's looking at Steve now.

He frowns at her again, but her expression is still blank. Then she blinks and turns her gaze away from him meaningfully. Steve stares. She does it again, and Steve follows her gaze to Thor. The alien god-ish person is standing near Dr. Banner, but not in a threatening way. He's sort of huddled by the doctor's side like an overprotective shadow.

That's… new. Since when were  _they_  friends?

Steve draws near, and Thor stops speaking abruptly. The two of them look up at Steve with wide eyes.

Okay, not suspicious at all.

* * *

As Toni flies over open water, her mind races. Not her cleanest exit, but man, did it feel good to yell at Nick Fury. She can still see the look on Steve's face when she called the Helicarrier a death trap. In hindsight, it's sort of a low blow, but a part of her hopes that Cap might listen to her if he quits trusting SHIELD so much. Fury's just as new to alien invasion as the rest of them, and he's going about it all wrong.

Loki isn't intimidated by SHIELD. In fact, he likes to see them try and stop him. Toni took one look at that man's smug face and knew Loki was planning something. That he knew everything he could about SHIELD, and they knew nothing of him. He had agents under his control and he'd be an idiot not to question them.

(SHIELD has Loki's own brother working with them, so why was  _Toni_  the only one to question him?)

Clint gave her up when he was turned. It's a logical assumption to make, and from that assumption, Toni can guess that Loki already knows about her. Loki probably knows a lot about Natasha Romanoff and Phil Coulson, too. And Fury. And Happy and Pepper.

Damn it,  _Pepper._

"JARVIS, can you call Ms. Potts for me?" Maybe she's still in DC. Stay in DC a little longer, please.

_~ Certainly, Ms. Stark. ~_

Pepper's photo ID pops up just above Toni's left eye. It's an old photo from a Christmas party, but it's the only photo Toni has of her CEO getting absolutely shit-faced, so it's her favorite. While the line rings, Toni thinks back to just a few days ago, when they first lit up Stark Tower.

Rhodey's congratulatory phone call; Pepper's excited declaration that the reactor was up and running normally; Toni drinking cider in celebration because she's really trying to be good—

_I tried. I really tried, and this is what I get?_  She wishes none of this had happened. She wishes she could've trusted SHIELD the way Clint and Coulson do. She hopes she can trust Thor and Bruce to do as she's asked them.

* * *

"What… " Steve resists the urge to demand answers from them. "Um. Have you made any progress with the Cube?"

Bruce's eyes widen further, and he shares a quick look with Thor before blurting out, "We have—the model's locked and—uh, I'm searching for its signature now. When we—when I get a hit, we'll have it—the Tesseract's—location within… half a mile?" He looks at Thor again, uneasily.

"Okay," Steve nods agreeably. Dr. Banner doesn't seem on the brink of an incident, but he does seem incredibly stressed by something, and Steve doesn't mean to push any buttons. "Are you okay working without Ms. Stark?"

Bruce's gaze snaps back to Steve, his mouth slightly open in alarm. "What? No, no, of course. What was the question? Toni's gone. Yeah, that's a shame, what can you do—" he grimaces. "Toni Stark does what she wants, ya know? I know.  _Thor_  knows."

Thor gives the doctor a stern look.

"Thor  _doesn't_  know. Thor is just a regular guy.  _I'm_  just a regular guy. I'm just passing time here. The model's locked on the Cube. It's fine. Everything's fine."

So much for not pushing buttons.

Steve eyes Thor, who's been suspiciously quiet while Bruce has been suspiciously talkative. "So, what is it you know about Stark?"

Thor opens his mouth to respond, but no words come out. His brow furrows, and he taps his fingers against the table nervously.

"I…as Dr. Banner says, am just a regular man. Well, I am also a prince, but since this is Midgard, I do not hold much prestige in your lands. I used to, actually. The last time we had any contact with Midgard, your people were a little less evolved, you see, and they thought us to be true gods—of course, we are not immortal beings, but we do tend to be sturdier than your average Midgardian. There was a time in my youth, actually, when my brother convinced me that Rattatosk was stuck in a great big tree even though he's a squirrel so I climbed the tree to rescue him and when I reached the top, Rattatosk turned into Loki and he went  _'Blerrhh! It's me!'_  and then he pushed me out and I fell more than thirty meters, but it was all in good fun, as we are much hardier than your people, but it just goes to show that we were gods to your eyes—but not you specifically, as I have no idea as the current belief systems of Midgardians, however back then, in those days, yes, I was a god and had the prestige on the level with my prestige in Asgard, where I am the crown prince, but now your people do not recognize me as such, and therefore… I am just a regular… guy."

Lord, Steve never thought he'd have to listen to a Norse God talk this much about so little.

Thor shares a look with Bruce, and the doctor shrugs and gives him a weak thumbs-up.

Steve sighs. "What the  _hell_  did Stark tell you two?"

* * *

* * *

"Toni… I think you're getting ahead of yourself," Bruce sighs, pulling off his glasses to rub his eyes.

He looks exhausted but also coiled tight like a spring. That probably has to do with the giant Norse God crowding the two of them. Bruce glances at Thor again with a frown.

"Why is he here?" He gives Toni a flat look. "You didn't  _actually_  ask to see—"

"Shut up, Bruce," Toni cuts him off, her voice a little shrill. "He's here 'cause he is. Back to the problem. Selvig's portal designs. With the iridium to stabilize the wormhole it creates, the Tesseract gives off more than enough energy to sustain the portal itself. With a kick from whatever reactor is used—plus the iridium, minimizing heat loss—"

"The Cube would have an excess of energy to release," Bruce nods, adjusting his glasses pensively. "It could cause a meltdown if they're utilizing the wrong reactors, so that could narrow down their choices."

"Hence my tower's reactor." Toni finishes the thought.

Bruce sighs again. "Toni, I don't think—"

"Starkium is—it's essentially synthetic vibranium, Bruce," Toni insists. "No one's ever seen a vibranium-based reactor before, the Wakandans are tight-lipped about it. So that leaves my reactor, and my designs can take on a lot of excess energy."

Her eyes flicker to Thor. Her newest reactor designs could probably adapt to those fancy lightning strikes. "But I don't know how that would affect Selvig's device. I don't know how he could resolve all that excess energy," Toni concludes.

Bruce leans against the table with his arms crossed. "I'm not sure… but—" He grows pensive.

"What?" Toni presses.

Banner wrings his hands. "An energy barrier. Once the Tesseract gets a kick-start, it could probably sustain its own barrier  _and_  a portal. Wouldn't be hard for Erik to build that in, hypothetically."

Toni's face falls. How the  _hell_  were they supposed to get through that?

"Again," Bruce breaks into her thoughts, "I think you're getting ahead of yourself. We don't know where the Cube is."

"No, I'm not," Toni says flatly. "If there's  _any_  chance that Loki's going to use my tower for this, then I need to evacuate the building." She takes a few quick strides away, distancing herself from the two men.

"Toni?" Bruce grows concerned. "What's going on? Why don't we just tell Fury?"

She looks at Thor instead, and the demigod meets her eyes solemnly. "Keep it away from Fury. Keep it away from Loki. Please?"

They both ignore Bruce as he asks "Keep  _what_  away?"

With a slow, meaningful nod, Thor agrees. That's one burden off her shoulders, at least, and she's grateful for it.

Toni inhales deeply, listening as alerts pop up on some of the monitors. A flashing warning,  _Intruder Alert, Security Breach_ —

The click of Natasha Romanoff's heels. Toni feels her eye twitch as the redhead enters, eyes fixed on Bruce.

"Romanoff, so good of you to join us," Toni greets her loudly, stepping between her and Bruce. "Quick question, darling, did you know Fury was building an arsenal using the Tesseract?"

"I don't have time for this, Stark." Her voice is curt as always, but there's an edge to her expression that Toni doesn't recognize. "Dr. Banner—"

"So it doesn't bother you at all, huh?" Toni cuts in again, her voice growing loud. She doesn't have to fake this part.

"No," Natasha answers coldly. "We encountered a new kind of threat, and we're adapting to it any way we can."

The scepter is already encased in a shielded container. Thor moves it to the back of the room and waits. It's not the most elegant sleight of hand, but that's why Toni's here. Her voice rises as she speaks.

"Honestly, Romanoff? Don't you think there's a problem here? Tell me. Say it to my fucking face. You know what this thing does. You know what this thing /brought/ to Earth, and yet—and yet  _you think it's alright to build weapons with this?"_

* * *

Steve sighs. "What the  _hell_  did Stark tell you two?"

"Oh, Toni didn't tell me anything!" Bruce chirps, raising his hand.

Thor scoffs, looks away, and crosses his arms tightly. "I do not know what you speak of," he declares, but as he shifts, his cape shifts and falls off the table, and beneath it is a long, rectangular container. Steve's eyes fall immediately to it.

No one speaks. Bruce presses his hands into his face.

"Is that—?"

* * *

The ringing stops, and the call disconnects. Panic rises in Toni's throat. "JARVIS?"

_~ Apologies, Ms. Stark, but I cannot reach Ms. Potts. She is likely still in transit. ~_

Toni sighs. At least she won't have to worry this way. "Alright. How's our evacuation doing?"

If Toni's right about her tower, then there's not much she can do to stop it at this point, but she can still minimize the collateral damage from what's to come. Her company has already done a lot of shitty things, but she won't be responsible for any employee deaths today. Letting SHIELD so close to her work was a mistake.

"J, buddy, give me stats," Toni says again, more urgently. "I know we're too far out to get a full read on the power outputs, but—"

_~ I cannot reach the tower at this time. ~_

Something cold creeps up her spine. "Uh, what do you mean? How is that possible?" Toni demands. She leans to the right and twists between the pillars of a bridge, flying down the West Side. A small indicator blinks on her HUD, measuring the distance to her tower. They should have remote access to the tower's servers by now. "Talk to me, JARVIS."

_~ I cannot reach the tower at this time. ~_  JARVIS repeats.  _~ Ma'am, m-mY senSORs iNdicAte a— ~_

The HUD flashes red, but too late—something hits her from the side, beeps twice, and then explodes in a burst of bright white flames.

The concussive force of the blast throws Toni off-course, but more problematic is the HUD—it flickers twice and then goes completely dark, leaving Toni to maneuver with basic mechanical controls.

She curses loudly, twisting her wrists to reactivate the thrusters. With no sense of where she's headed, Toni propels herself in one direction—hopefully upwards—and then aims for a flat, empty rooftop to land on.

The rooftop she finds is flat, but there's also a little garden on it. And she doesn't so much as land, but rather tumble and skid and crash through a vegetable patch before she's out of immediate danger.

But no matter—Toni yanks off her faceplate and pulls herself out of the dirt, painfully aware of how open she's left herself. Her head is still ringing from the blast, but her eyes have adjusted, and she tries to figure out where the attack had come from.

She risks a glance at the projectile still clogging up the shifting plates of her suit. Then she looks again, panic threatening to take over her mind, and rips it out of her suit. It's not quite an EMP, but something to disrupt her guidance systems.

Something she designed.

"For fuck's sake," Toni whispers to herself, staring at the blackened remains of an arrow in her hand. She tosses it aside just as Hawkeye drops down onto her rooftop. There's a zipline above him, already anchored in place.

"For fuck's sake," Toni repeats, louder and squeakier, taking a step back from the agent. "How'd you know which rooftop I'd land on? There's something freaky about your understanding of physics."

Clint doesn't react. Toni didn't really expect him to, but she hoped. He reaches back to grab another arrow, and Toni sticks the faceplate back on. The HUD reboots, and she leaps out of the path of Clint's next arrow in the nick of time.

She powers up the thrusters, but just as she takes off, her boots are disabled by two arrows lodged in the joints of the suit and Iron Man stumbles back to the ground.

Toni grits her teeth, feeling the spot where she bit her cheek. "Oh, you want me to stay a while? Okay." A trajectory predictor materializes on Toni's screen, and she cranks up the power output from her left gauntlet.

He draws his bow again. Toni feels her palms prickle with heat as she aims.

" _Let's dance, bird-brain_."

* * *

_BOOM!_  The three men flinch at the noise, but the explosion is far away. There's a view of the bridge from this lab, and agents are running around frantically, but no further explosion is heard.

Bruce is already checking security footage around the Helicarrier. "There's been a breach in quadrants four and six, but—no serious structural damage." He looks at Thor and Steve worriedly. "We're in quadrant five, though. Thor, I can't help if they get here—I'm—I'm no help if they—if I'm—"

He collapses to his knees, breathing heavily, but not quite green yet.

Steve looks on in alarm. "Banner, are you alright? Thor, can you—?" He asks with his eyes.  _Can you handle him?_

Thor eyes him gravely. "This was not part of the plan."

"It is now!" Steve says firmly. "If Banner can't hold on, you're the only one that can keep him from destroying this base."

"Aye," Thor agrees promptly and drops something into Steve's arms. "You were not part of the plan either, I fear, but I think Ms. Stark may have misjudged you. I will keep Dr. Banner from this vessel. You must keep  _that_  away from Loki."

"Oh my god, they're like right outside," Bruce comments loudly, scrolling through cameras as Steve searches for the quickest route out of here. "Thor, I think I'm triggering myself. Aw jeez, do you see all those guns? You're bullet-proof, right?"

Steve feels his heart squeeze. He should help. He needs to help them, help the agents… but there's a different weight on his shoulders now. Or rather, in his hands.

He can hear Thor's booming voice as he leaves. "I will be fine, my friend, as shall you."

"Good. That's g-good. I th-think I'm gonna—goonnnna _aaaAAARRRGGGHHHH!"_

* * *

Toni staggers to her feet, gasping for breath. Her suit's only partially functioning, with at least three new arrows jamming up essential gears. But at least she has time to breath now, instead of holding it all in. Her friend, her silly sharp-shooter field agent not-lover not-ex circus boy. He came at her with everything, and Toni's still not sure she did the right thing in hitting back.

Hawkeye crash-landed somewhere in the building across the street. Her HUD's a little fuzzy but she can still see his vital signs.

He's alive, she's alive, but this stupid fight isn't over yet.

"That was fun," Toni says flatly.

_~ Indeed, Miss. ~_  JARVIS replies, and his voice is music to her ears.

"Let's go home, J."

Taking a deep breath, Toni tears out the custom arrows from her boot thrusters, carefully checking the output levels before firing them up.

The city below her is lively but peaceful. There are a few cop cars around the building she fought on, but she was able to keep the damage down. No casualties besides the tomato patch.

Toni has an awful, gut-wrenching feeling that it won't stay so peaceful here. "JARVIS…. Did we shut down the reactor?"

_~ Actually, yes. And the device is offline according to my systems. ~_

Her heart leaps. "And how accurate are your systems at this time? Clint's been messing with your servers," Toni reminds them both. She twists around a building, and the tower comes into view.

It looks…

It looks fine?

The video feed appears on the corner of her HUD, and JARVIS is right. _~ No, Ma'am. The reactor has been properly shut down. Selvig can be located on the penthouse floor, along with an unknown object on the terrace. It is offline. ~_

Toni brings herself to a slow stop, hovering over the upper terrace. Below, she sees Selvig and a machine. She cuts the thrusters and drops down onto a platform, but doesn't take off the suit.

She steps into her penthouse, feeling strung tighter than a bow. Something's wrong.


	10. Thor, Pt. 3

Chapter 10 — Thor III

* * *

"Where's the line, Fury?" Antonia Stark demands, and Natasha  _almost_  shares a knowing look with her boss. Director Fury just rolls his eyes at the heiress's tirade. Romanoff commends the woman for her work, though. It's just the right combination of righteous fury and sexy female passion to get everyone's attention when she needs it.

Even Natasha's a little starstruck. In the time she took her eyes off of the demigod and Banner to look at Stark, Thor's done  _something_ , and Natasha wants to know what.

She sees no reason to stop Stark from leaving the Helicarrier. Whether or not Stark cooperates is of little consequence at this point. They still have Banner and a team of relatively competent scientists to work with—and speaking of Banner, he does not look as green as Natasha anticipated.

_That_  makes her prickle. She shouldn't have put so much stock in Loki's smug words. Just because the megalomaniac believes he can  _set loose the beast_  doesn't mean Banner will lose control. Coulson and Fury agreed with her on this, actually: of all the members being recruited for the Avengers Initiative, it's Stark, not Banner, that seemed the most likely to break rank.

Though only Clint would've known Stark would break this quickly, over something as trivial as  _weapons_. Natasha disregards most of what Stark says, even as she charges past Fury and out of the Helicarrier.

Natasha fully believes that Stark's not  _out_ , not in the way she might claim. The woman may be difficult, but she has a sense of duty like the rest of them do. The difficult part is piecing together what she's doing. Toni Stark takes great pleasure in leaving SHIELD out of the loop.

Stark herself is unimportant. What intrigues Natasha right now—besides Loki, who's far too happy in his cell at the moment—is still Thor.

He's done something. Natasha can see it in every tense movement he makes. Banner drifts to the far corner of the room and Thor follows like a giant protective shadow. As far as Natasha knows, the two of them haven't spoken more than two words to each other. With Stark's exit, the shouting has all stopped, and Banner isn't nearly as likely to lose control now. And yet the Norse God is two feet from the doctor, speaking to him in a quiet, calm tone.

Natasha turns her attention back to Steve, who is understandably lost. He frowns at her, and she raises her eyebrows at him, then looks to Thor and Bruce on the other side of the room.

Rogers frowns even more, confused, but follows her gaze. As the Captain's expression shifts from confused to suspicious, Natasha strides out of the lab. While Steve figures out what Stark's done to the alien and the scientist, she needs to take a closer look at their prisoner.

* * *

"Back so soon?" The demigod's eyes glimmer in amusement. "Your tactics don't work twice, so I wonder what you'll try this time?"

This time, Natasha needs no pretenses. She drags a folded metal chair to the edge of the railing and sinks into the seat without a word. Loki paces in his cell, trying and failing to pretend he's not interested in what she has to say.

She lets him simmer, leaning back in her chair, leaving her fingers laced together and resting on her waist. His eyes flicker over her figure a few times, sometimes in suspicion, sometimes in appreciation. Natasha lets it go on.

He cracks after fifteen minutes.

"What is it you want from me?" He erupts, striding towards her.

Natasha stands as well, swiftly walking over to the control panel. Loki stops short as she activates the doors without preamble, letting in a great gust of wind and frigid air.

He looks down at the drop below him, nostrils flaring in anger as he backs off.

When he's in the center of his cell again, Natasha shuts the doors and returns to her seat.

"So I've gained a personal guard, is that it?" Loki asks after a moment, his voice cool and collected once more. "I suppose I prefer  _this_  view to the alternative." Green eyes slide over her figure. It's supposed to be insulting, slimy, but oddly, she doesn't think he's putting enough effort into it.

Romanoff arches one perfect eyebrow. "An hour ago you were calling me a mewling quim." She won't be forgetting that one for a while. But where is that vitriol now?

Loki shrugs. "What's your people's saying? 'I contain…  _multitudes_.'"

"You also said my people were insects to you," Natasha states blandly.

"Are you looking for an explanation?" Loki demands suddenly, his mouth twisting unhappily. "You'll find none here. So sorry to disappoint, but I do not answer to anyone, certainly not some silly little mortal like you."

Natasha only raises her eyebrow again, tilting her head to the side. "I didn't ask anything."

Loki's face falls for a millisecond before he scowls and turns away. "Be silent, woman."

"But you wanted to talk in the first place."

"Silence!" He sneers, looking around the room. But then he asks, "Have they truly tasked you with minding me? How curious, that you would be reduced to this."

Natasha sees no point in feigning offense. Loki is obviously trying to needle her again, but he isn't very good at it. What's more interesting is that he's attempting to provoke her at all.

She tilts her head to one side and ruminates, "You want me to leave. I think that means I should stay."

Loki's eyes gleam in anger, and he opens his mouth to respond when the entire ship shudders abruptly, and alarms begin to blare around them. Natasha stands and presses on her communicator.

"Hill?"

_"Agent Romanoff, we have hostiles entering in sector four, five and seven, they are arms and trained—they're ours, they're—we need to keep this contained—"_

"You know who they're here for," Natasha reminded Agent Hill smoothly, though she does not look at Loki.

_"They'll damage the ship enough to ground us before they reach the prisoner. We need to stop them now before they go after a second turbine. If they knock us out of the air, we're done. You have your orders, Romanoff."_  Hill says tersely, and Natasha leaves without sparing Loki another glance.

* * *

Taking ownership of the freaky weapon is the worst decision  _ever_. Why did he agree to this? He doesn't have a plan. No one told Steve there even  _was_  a plan until the last minute.

_Damn you, Stark._  Steve thinks irritably, but he also understands the logic. Part of it, at least. She's probably right to keep the scepter away from Loki, it has the same look and feel of those HYDRA weapons he encounters so many years ago, but Stark shouldn't have gone off to find the Cube on her own. Regret stirs in his gut.  _Stark went off on her own for a reason. I should've said something when she confronted Director Fury about his weapons program. Maybe she would've trusted me to help her._

Steve should be on the ground with Ms. Stark, stopping Selvig from activating that portal—not playing hide and seek with brainwashed agents. This feels more like a Black Widow assignment. How the hell is he supposed to hide a giant box, his brightly-colored shield,  _and_  six feet of super-soldier?

At least SHIELD has an endless supply of—well, supply closets. Steve's currently sequestered in a particularly tiny one in sector four, and he can hear a lot of heavy fire just down the hall.

_Where do I even go_? Steve wonders to himself.  _Who can I contact? Toni's gone, Banner's compromised, Thor's trying to contain him—_ Natasha.

He presses carefully on his comm. "Agent Romanoff, where are you?"

He hears a lot of noise and screams in the background, and then the distinctive sound of a body dropping to the floor.  _"Where are_ you? _I'm in your sector, why am I the only one fighting? This seems like your sort of thing."_

Steve grimaces at the package in his arms. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

* * *

The penthouse is quiet. Not eerily quiet, but empty and echo-y just enough so Toni can't relax. Her helmet stays in place, her HUD is up and running, and Selvig is on the floor below her.

She goes down the stairs in full armor and scans the room with every step.

Selvig has moved the device inside by the time she arrives. She can see, even from across the room, that his eyes are bright blue like Barton's. Toni can only assume he's still under the influence of the scepter.

_I don't know how to bring him back,_  Toni realizes in dismay. She'd hoped that distancing Loki from the scepter would weaken his control, but that wasn't the case with Clint, and Selvig looks happy to be here.

"Selvig, you need to disable that thing," Toni says quietly. Erik's not a fighter. Loki might not have given him the same orders as Clint. This could end without Selvig getting hurt. Her mind flashes back to Clint, looking beaten and exhausted beyond his years, as he draws another arrow from his quiver and she raises her repulsor. This is all so wrong.

Toni takes a deep, calming breath. "I don't want to hurt you. Just step back and I'll do it, okay?"

Erik Selvig blinks a few times, but the bright blue is still there. He cocks his head to the side and frowns. He looks crazy, half from the scepter and half from the science bender he's been on. She imagines Selvig hasn't slept in a week. "I know you, Ms. Stark. You should help us," he says simply. There's nothing sinister in his tone, just frankness.

"Uh, yeah, no." Toni scoffs, but she lets her faceplate drop as she speaks. "I'm not too eager for our alien overlords to arrive, actually. Not sure I'd fit in with Loki's crowd."

Erik seems to relax as she speaks. "You're a talented person. Fury should've brought you in on our research. You're wasted as this—" he gestures to her suit, "as this  _Avenger_ thing."

She raises a skeptical eyebrow. "Right now this  _Avenger_  is the only thing standing in the way of, y'know, alien invaders. Speaking of which—"

"No, Stark, you're not," Erik interrupts her, and then he shifts his stance to stand taller. Toni waits patiently. "You're not in the way."

_Oh_.

" _JARVIS—_ "

An arrow whizzes through the open terrace windows and rips between the metal plates covering her shoulder.

An arrow. "...Clint?"

The pain doesn't register at first. The blow jerks her back, twisting her sideways and leaving her open to the window, but she doesn't feel it. Maybe it's shock, or adrenaline, or exhaustion. She doesn't feel the armor-piercing arrow buried next to her collarbone. She just looks at it, and thinks,  _Clint_.

Another arrow flashes by, pinning her other arm, and  _then_ , finally, her mind catches up and Toni  _screams_.

* * *

Natasha listens in silence as Steve gives her the rundown. She was right to have him investigate, rather than pursue this herself. Stark's paranoia is strong, and with the way Thor and Bruce acted around her, they wouldn't have entrusted the scepter to Natasha.

Steve, on the other hand.

"Give the scepter to me. You'll need to stop Loki from getting off the ship."

"Right," Steve nods, and then Natasha is alone among fallen agents, holding the large, rectangular containment unit in her arms.

She gets to the hangar with little trouble. The Hulk and Thor are on the far side of the ship, bashing each other into walls. She inputs coordinates and then the quinjet is off—the ship takes a few hits from enemy jets, but they stop abruptly. When she looks at the cameras the Hulk is there, tearing jets apart for hitting him too. The green monster turns and roars at her plane, but she's out of his range, and her heartbeat slows as she realizes this.

The Helicarrier is almost out of sight when Natasha checks the cameras again—just in time to see a huge container drop out from the ship, hurling towards the earth.

She hopes that it's Loki. She knows it isn't.

* * *

He's falling. Oh God, he's  _falling_.

The world spins wildly out his control, and he can't get the angle right to smash the glass. He's not sure he even can. Steve grunts as he crashes into the floor again, but he can't bring the shield around the hit anything. He can't steady himself.

He can see the ground in flashes of green and brown.

"Can—can anyone hear me?!" He shouts, but he can barely listen for an answer with the sound of his heart pounding against his ribcage. Just a month ago, he'd been ready to die for his country, and then he  _did_  but now he's going to do it all over again, isn't he?

He smashes against another wall, rattling his helmet. Steve bites back a curse. What use is having a team if they're scattered like this? What use is  _Steve_  if he dies like this, and then the Earth is invaded?

"Fuck!" He shouts, and then the container flips, revealing a blur of red as it shatters through the glass.

* * *

Romanoff finally accesses the live feed from the Helicarrier, remotely hacking into the servers. The containment room is empty, but she doesn't have time to look through footage to see who fell.

She catches the tail-end of Loki's demands. The Director being held by the throat. Agents Coulson and Hill, beaten and bloodied. The Helicarrier hasn't been lost, but if they take any more damage…

Romanoff makes the only choice she can.

Her voice is smooth, smug, all the things she doesn't feel right cuts in before Loki's hand crushes Fury's throat.

"Hey there Loki. I hear you're looking for your stick."

And then he gazes at the screen, through the screen, and Natasha knows, at least, that she has neutralized the threat on the Helicarrier. This battle is over, and though SHIELD took heavy losses, they're still in the air, and they'll be useful in the next fight.

Now, the threat is coming to New York.

Stark's going to kill her.

* * *

When Toni wakes up— _but when did I fall asleep?_ —she is flat on her back, and there's something heavy pressing on her chest. She jerks, trying to dislodge it, and is reminded of the two arrows lodged in her shoulders. She swears, and sense movement to her right.

"Erik," Toni exhales shakily, eyeing the physicist. "Erik, what did you do?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Stark. I really am. It's such a waste!" Erik shakes his head, fiddling with a large connecting cable. She knows that device. She  _made_  those cables. "You're more useful as a scientist than a battery."

_No, no, no._

"Selvig," Toni's eyes grow wide with horror. "Selvig, you can't," she tries to explain it logically, but what comes out is a plea. "It won't work. You can't. You can't use this one, it's—it's not enough to activate your portal."

"Hm," Selvig tilts his head to the side. "You know, you might survive. I didn't get to finish the calculations."

"Then don't test it out now!" She snaps desperately. "Damn it, damn it, where's Hawkeye? I know you're here, you bird fucker! Your intel is wrong, my reactor isn't the same as the tower's! Get over here!"

She hears the heavy steps of combat boots approaching. Toni cranes her head up to look at him. Clint's covered in bruises and seemed to be in the middle of wrapping his injuries. He gives her a plain, uninterested look.

Toni takes a moment to stop herself from screaming and sobbing in frustration because her stupid agent friend looks half  _dead_  and it's not just Loki that's done this, it's  _her_ , she just beat him up and it accomplished  _nothing_.

"Barton… Clint, it's not going to work," Toni explains softly. She isn't sure of this yet, but she has to stall at least. "I built all this, and I know it won't work. If you turn on that thing I'm gonna die, and that's it."

Hawkeye's expression doesn't change.

Toni feels like exploding. "Okay, fine! I'll get fried, but at least you'll all look like idiots in front of your fuckin' alien overlord!" Seriously, what did that scepter  _do_  to them? How were they still under its influence?

A horrible thought comes to mind.  _Loki got the scepter back._  Which can only happen if Thor and Banner lost it? The two heaviest hitters on this farce of a team couldn't hold on to one measly magic wand?

No, that's not it. Toni's brow furrows in thought. Either the scepter was already back in Loki's grubby mitts, or the scepter continues to compel its victims until they are released from its control, or the compulsion can only be altered by entering new instructions via scepter.

Option three is probably the worst conclusion since none of them have a clue how to operate magic wands, so Toni puts that theory on the backburner.

Maybe Loki  _does_  have his magic stick again. Maybe… Toni's eyes flicker around the room. There are only a few other people around, helpers for Selvig. Loki compelled a lot more agents than this, so maybe there's another division tasked with something else.

Such as breaking Loki out of jail, and keeping the rest of SHIELD and the "team" occupied. They would certainly have the skillset to do it, as rogue field agents.

She should've taken Banner off the Helicarrier. If they were ambushed in the air, the Hulk was enough to take out the rest of them.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Toni was wrong to come here. She was right about the whole Stark Tower strategy, but yeah.  _Dumb move, Stark._

Clint looks down on her vacantly. "Boss contacted me. They're en route, so we're on standby 'till then."

Toni blinks. "Fuck, wait, the horned frog is already out of the cage?" Of course, all she gets are blank stares in response. "Aw, come on. You know that's funny, Selvig. You've seen Loki's antlers. And all the  _green_ , it's hideous." She insists.

"You know, we  _could_  just test out the machine now," Erik replies cheerfully, tapping a screwdriver against the metal framework. "Without access to your designs, I don't know the exact power conversion I need. I might need to do a few tests."

Toni squints at Selvig. "Wait. Are you threatening me, or is that just your professional opinion?"

Selvig chuckles and shrugs. "I don't know!"

* * *

"...Well, you see, that is part of the problem," Thor is explaining to Bruce as the two of them exit the crater made in an old warehouse. The Asgardian lifts his head to Steve, waiting by a pickup truck. "We do not have the scepter anymore."

"Steve," Bruce greets him, surprised. Steve pushes off from the old truck he's leaning heavily on. "You look worse than me," the doctor blurts out and then looks apologetic. "I mean, well—"

Steve holds up a tired hand. "I get it. And the scepter's with Romanoff now, unless Loki caught her. We should head to Manhattan, meet up with Stark."

Bruce eyes him. "Are you… Are you alright, Steve? How'd you end up out here?"

A whirlwind of sky and earth. Screaming into the comms, with no answer. Steve grimaces, and pushes down the memory, same as the ice. "I fell off the ship." Steve glances at Thor gratefully. "I'm glad we have you around, Thor."

The Norse God offers him an understanding smile and gives Steve a hard pat on the back. It reminds Steve abruptly of Bucky, back when they were kids and Steve was the skinny one. "I'm sure you will return the favor on the battlefield, Captain. Now, I think our shield-sisters need us."

Steve lifts his head, lightened by Thor's steady presence. Bruce nods as well, a new look of resolution in his eyes. "Let's go, gentlemen."


	11. Divas

Toni Stark meets Loki for the first time in the middle of her penthouse, still pinned to the floor with a half-ton of heavy machinery hanging over her. The room goes quiet as he enters, in full regalia (sans antlers, disappointingly), boots clicking on her marble floors. His expression is infuriatingly smug, arrogance radiating out so thickly it almost colors the air around him. Toni would scowl, she would buzz with anger at the audacity of this stranger sweeping into her tower—if it were real.

Loki can look as smug as he wants. It's all posturing before the big show.

_He doesn't have the scepter._

Toni tsked like an old butler. "At least wipe your feet on the mat. Don't go tracking mud into my home," she ends with a generous dose of bitterness, looking up at the tall alien. "My home, Loki. Honestly. Who told you this was a good idea?"

He only tilts his head to the side, brilliant green eyes burning into hers. "Agent Barton had a lot to say about you, my lady."

Barton, who is standing at attention at Loki's side even though he looks half dead. Something in her screams and claws at the sight until whatever's left of Toni's sanity snaps.

Her expression goes flat. "I'm sure anyone would, I'm all over the gossip rags these days," Toni dismisses Loki in a heartbeat. He senses the change in her demeanor but does not back down. Toni doesn't expect him to. "All you had to do was a google search for 'big power plant, world domination' and I'm sure my name would be the first result," she points out offhandedly before meeting his eyes again. "You made all these plans to give SHIELD the run-around—but did you really think you could outsmart me? Outclass me? You're not the biggest diva on this planet, darling, and I don't share my stage."

Loki turns away from her shark-like grin, giving Selvig an expectant look. "She locked down the tower before we could get to it," the scientist confirms. "We could still try the device with the miniaturized reactor, but there's a 56% chance of failure."

Toni gives a low whistle at those odds. "Those are some terrible stats, Lokester. Why don't you quit while you're ahead? I've got some good scotch tucked away in this place, surrender now and we'll swap stories over a few drinks before they lock you up."

His eyes narrow, and he leans over her imperiously. "Why would I quit when I have my solution right here?"

Toni arches an eyebrow at him. "Who, me?" She laughs, loud and callously. "Listen, Loki, if you had any idea of how to get me to help you, we could've taken over the world before Memorial Day." It's sheer dumb luck he didn't go after her with that magic wand.

Loki tilts his head to the side, the corner of his lips curling up. "I do not doubt it, Ms. Stark. However I was not referring to you, but you and Agent Romanoff," he replies and stands to his full height.

"Romanoff," Toni repeats, careful not to let her curiosity get the better of her. Did that mean she had the scepter? Horror creeps up her throat. The cube is already here, and now that bitch brought the scepter to her city too?

Barton shifts to attention and Loki speaks. "The Widow claims she wants to cut a deal. If anyone interferes, you will activate the portal."

This is all wrong. What the hell happened on the Helicarrier after she left? Where the fuck was the rest of her supposed team?

Romanoff is her only hope. She's doomed.

* * *

Stark poses a problem. Unsurprisingly. Natasha watches the penthouse from thirty floors below, in one of several security rooms of Stark Tower. There is no audio, and Stark's AI is down, but she isn't a spy for nothing. The rules of this game are clear. Either Natasha hands over the scepter and Loki controls them both, or she keeps the scepter, and Stark dies.

She's won with worse odds.

* * *

One moment, he is standing by the elegant Midgardian bar in Stark Tower, and the next, his sight fades and crumbles and reforms until he is suspended on a piece of rock in the vastness of space, the void stretching forever beyond him.

"The Chitauri grow restless."

"Let them gird themselves," he answers callously, watching as his form solidifies before the Other. In his illusion he still wears his ceremonial armor, still carries the scepter. "I will lead them into glorious battle." He walks casually, does not look out into the cold depths of space.

The Other scurries around, half-hidden by the rocks. "Battle? Against the meager might of Earth?"

"Glorious," he repeats flatly, "Not lengthy—if your force is as formidable as you claim."

* * *

She watches Loki silently. His back is to her, and he faces the bar, but she can see his reflection in the chrome cabinets. His eyes are shut, and his head moves every once in a while, as though in conversation.

"Weirdo," Toni mumbles to herself.

Then Loki straightens up, pulled out of his trance. He inspects the work of his mind-controlled minions and then glances at Toni speculatively. "I do wonder," he drawls, "What it would be like with you under my command."

"Not much fun," Toni says honestly, and then she winks. "I prefer to be on top."

He crouches down to her, grinning too wide for it to be genuine, eyes glimmering. "If you insist on being lewd, then I must object—you look your best as you are now: laying on your back, at my mercy," he whispers, leaning close enough for her to feel a puff of cool air on her cheek before he stands again.

A shiver runs down her body. Toni curses her libido and Loki's pretty face and keeps talking like an idiot. "You haven't seen me at my best, sweetheart. You'll know when you do."

Loki raises an eyebrow and his mouth curls into a faint smile. Before he can reply, though, the elevator dings, and the doors slide open.

Toni hears the click of heeled boots, but can't quite see the elevators. She watches Loki instead, and he rises to his full height again to address the newcomer.

"Not a step closer, Widow," Loki commands, eyeing her with suspicion. "Where is it?"

"Hidden," Natasha Romanoff replies breezily. "Safe. Give me Stark and I'll give you the location."

"You were foolish to come here without it," Loki sneers.

"It's the logical precaution to take," Natasha counters. "How else could I be assured you won't attack me as soon as it's in your hands?"

"Are you frightened of me, Agent Romanoff?" he leers, flashing an unpleasant grin.

"No, I just know what you're the god of. Give me Stark and I'll give you a location."

Loki is quiet. "Hm. Might I provide a counteroffer?"

"I'm not interested."

"I'll give you Agent Barton instead."

Toni stares at Loki, her heart in her throat. His eyes are fixed on Natasha, and she can't read him.

"He's still under your control."

"Only just. He fights it every moment. To be perfectly honest, he's quite useless to me at this point. If you don't want him, perhaps I'll just get rid of him right now—"

"Deal!"

* * *

Thor shifts agitatedly from the truck bed. "These infernal carriages are hindering our journey!" He exclaims, peering at the blue sedan crawling next to them in bumper-to-bumper traffic. A young boy wearing glasses and clutching an Iron Man figure stares back, utterly gobsmacked. Thor waves.

"I think this is Toni's doing," Bruce comments, drumming his hands on the wheel. "Or her AI. They're trying to evacuate parts of the city, there might even be a roadblock ahead."

Steve cranes his head out the window, searching the tall building ahead. He almost expects to see her fly across the city like she does normally, patrolling the skies. "It looks like she's kept him from activating the portal so far."

"Let us hope—" Thor sticks his head through the small window to address them, but all they can see is a curtain of golden hair, "—that she can keep my brother at bay. It is good that the Widow has contained the scepter. If there is truly an army coming, Loki will not unleash it until he has his power back."

"Where is she?" Bruce muses, glancing at Steve quickly. "You said you passed the scepter off to Natasha. Does she know how important it is?"

"Of course she does," Steve says instantly. "Agent Romanoff is a professional, I trust her."

"I do not know the Widow," Thor rumbles. "But she would not risk it falling back into an adversary's hands, right?"

"Right," Steve confirms, but doubt stirs in his gut. Romanoff is good, but she tends to measure things the same way Fury does. "But that doesn't mean Toni doesn't need help right now. Thor," Steve unbuckles himself. "Mind giving me another lift?"

* * *

Toni licks her lips and meets Loki's eyes. "Deal," she repeats. "Let Barton and Romanoff go and I'll fix up your portal, no scepter required."

"Stark—" Romanoff snaps.

"The scepter's probably in this building," Toni rushes on. "I have secure containment units on multiple levels, easy enough for the Widow to break into them. Let her and Barton leave and I'll show you."

Loki looks painfully delighted. "That would be splendid. But how could I possibly trust you?"

"This is between you and me, Loki," Romanoff tries.

"Yeah, but I've got the best offer, don't I?" Toni interrupts. She can almost feel the anger rolling off of the agent. She casts a charming smile at Loki. "Hurt either of them and I'll fight. Let them go and I'll help. I'm a simple woman, Loki."

"That's not enough, Antonia," Loki purrs, stepping closer to her side. "I need a guarantee."

She stares up at him. "You already have it. I have a damn good reason for keeping my promises. If I'm wrong, all you have to do is pull that switch and fry me."

For a long moment, there is silence. Toni feels as though she's tearing apart at the seams, crumbling to dust under the alien's gaze.

But then—

He dismisses Barton with a wave of his hand.

Romanoff leaves with Clint.

One of Loki's agents brings up the security footage, and Toni watches a pair of master assassins walk out of her tower unharmed.

Loki sits back in one of her favorite armchairs. If it survives this shitshow, she'll burn it. "Now, my lady. Are you going to behave?"

The drawling accent of his voice, the way his eyes flicker over the curve of her breast—"You can drop the act now, Lokester, I don't feel like playing anymore," Toni answers flatly, and privately curses her libido again.

"Hm," Loki hums but says nothing more. She's tempted to check the expression on his face but resists.

Toni tries to take a deep breath, but the machinery above her is pressed too closely for that. She shuts her eyes instead and flexes the fingers of her left hand in a sequence.

A monitor flickers to life. Toni calls out a few commands, and lo and behold, there's a nice scepter tucked away on the 64th floor of her building. "There's your glow stick." He sends a crony to fetch it.

"And the portal?" Loki presses, rolling the scepter in his hands. "Or do you need more persuasion?"

"No," Toni rolls her eyes.

The portal has a chance of working with her reactor. A much smaller chance, with a much greater risk of death. If she dies now, they'll never be able to unlock the tower to use its generator. She's given Romanoff ample time to round up what's left of SHIELD and the team. Clint is safe. She can end this right now, right here.

"Your calculations are off, Erik," Toni confesses, feeling hollow inside. "I'm insulted. Didn't you do your homework on me? My reactors are impeccable, and this one right here's top of the line. Hit the switch, sweetpea, your army must be getting antsy."

* * *

 _A/N: do you know what comes next?_ i _sure don't. fasten_ you _seatbelts, kids._


End file.
